Another argument for embedded scalar implicatures based on oddness in downward entailing contexts

Authors

  • Giorgio Magri IJN, ENS

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v20i0.2547

Keywords:

scalar implicatures, downward entailing contexts, oddness

Abstract

In Magri (2009), I argue that a sentence such as 'Some Italians come from a warm country' sounds odd because it triggers the scalar implicature that not all Italians come from a warm country, which mismatches with the common knowledge that all Italians come from the same country. If this proposal is on the right track, then oddness can be used as a diagnostic for scalar implicatures. In this paper, I use this diagnostic to provide one more argument that scalar implicatures are computed not only at the matrix level but also in embedded position. The argument is based on a puzzling pattern of oddness in downward entailing contexts.

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Published

2010-08-14

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Section

Articles