Abstract
This paper deals with a cross linguistically productive, yet puzzling construction whichwe call x but (really) X (e.g. John is always but (really) ALWAYS late), which surprisinglycombines contrast and strengthening. We examine, but reject, an initial analysis where theconjuncts of but in this construction are domain-based or degree-based scalar alternativesand where the second, semantically stronger conjunct rejects a scalar implicature of thefirst. We then develop a revised analysis where but is under the scope of a covert quotationoperator (as in 'mixed quotations'). The analysis captures the 'metalinguistic' flavor of xbut X and the contribution of the 'contrastive' semantics of but to the strengthening effectof the whole construction, and is shown to avoid over-generation risks.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages | 275-284 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| State | Published - 2017 |
| Event | 21st Amsterdam Colloquium, AC 2017 - Amsterdam, Netherlands Duration: 20 Dec 2017 → 22 Dec 2017 |
Conference
| Conference | 21st Amsterdam Colloquium, AC 2017 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Netherlands |
| City | Amsterdam |
| Period | 20/12/17 → 22/12/17 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Amsterdam Colloquium, AC 2017.All right reserved.
Funding
∗Thanks to Mira Ariel, Elitzur Bar Asher Siegal, Ariel Cohen, Luka Crni, Danny Fox, Julie Goncharov, Andreas Haida, Yosi Grodzinski, Roni Katzir, Sven Lauer, Emar Maier, Lena Miashkur, Susan Rothstein, Galit Sassoon and the audience at TAU, the LLCC at HUJI, ESSLLI 2016 and IATL 2016 for constructive discussions and comments. Work on this research is supported by ISF grant 1655/16 to Yael Greenberg.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Israel Science Foundation | 1655/16 |