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Focus, Evaluativity, and Antonymy - A Study in the Semantics of Only and its Interaction with Gradable Antonyms (Paperback, 1st ed. 2020)
Loot Price: R2,745
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Focus, Evaluativity, and Antonymy - A Study in the Semantics of Only and its Interaction with Gradable Antonyms (Paperback, 1st ed. 2020)
Series: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 104
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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This book uncovers properties of focus association with 'only' by
examining the interaction between the particle and bare (or
"evaluative") gradable terms. Its empirical building blocks are
paradigms involving upward-scalar terms like 'few' and 'rarely',
and their downward-scalar antonyms 'many' and 'frequently', an area
that has not been studied previously in the literature. The
empirical claim is that associations of the former type give rise
to unexpected readings, and the proposed theoretical explanation
draws on the properties of the latter type of association. In
presenting the details, the book deconstructs the so-called scalar
presupposition of 'only' and derives it from constraints against
its vacuous use. This view is then combined with a semantics of the
evaluative adjectives 'many' and 'few' to explain why the
unavailable (but expected) meanings of the given constructions are
unavailable. The attested (but unexpected) readings of
'only+few/rarely' associations are derived from independently
motivated LFs in which the degree expressions are existentially
closed. Finally, the book provides new findings, based on the core
proposal, about 'only if' constructions, and about the interaction
between 'only' and other upward-scalar modified numerals
(comparatives, and 'at most'). The book thus provides new data and
a new theoretical view of the semantic properties of 'only', and
connects it to the semantics of gradable expressions.
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