CSSL19 The only class

Venue

• Class taught at The 3nd Crete Summer School of Linguistics
• University of Crete, Gallos, Rethymnon, Greece
• July 13–26, 2019

Instructor

• Kai von Fintel

Course description

This intermediate to advanced class will review what is known about exclusive markers like only and its cousins (in English and cross-linguistically). Topics include dimensions of meaning, mirativity, NPI licensing, the role of exclusives in expressions of sufficiency, the interaction with bare plurals and bare conditionals.

Pre-class survey

If you’re going to take the only class, please fill out a short survey, to help me plan the class.

Prerequisites

Just kidding, there are no prerequisites other than being interested in the class. However, since the audience will be quite diverse, I encourage you to read an article of mine on “prerequisites”.

Early readings

These readings should get you started thinking about these topics. Do not expect to necessarily fully understand everything. I’ll try to help you get into the material when I teach the class.

• von Fintel, Kai. 1993. Exceptive constructions. Natural Language Semantics 1(2). 123–148. doi:10.1007/BF00372560.
• von Fintel, Kai. 1997. Bare plurals, bare conditionals, and only. Journal of Semantics 14(1). 1–56. doi:10.1093/jos/14.1.1.
• von Fintel, Kai. 1999. NPI licensing, Strawson entailment, and context dependency. Journal of Semantics 16(2). 97–148. doi:10.1093/jos/16.2.97.
• von Fintel, Kai & Sabine Iatridou. 2007. Anatomy of a modal construction. Linguistic Inquiry 38(3). 445–483. doi:10.1162/ling.2007.38.3.445.
• Coppock, Elizabeth & David I. Beaver. 2014. Principles of the exclusive muddle. Journal of Semantics 31(3). 371–432. doi:10.1093/jos/fft007.
• Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Aron Hirsch. 2018. Keep only strong. SALT 28. 251–270. doi:10.3765/salt.v28i0.4439.

Class 1: Basics of exclusives (slides)

• Horn, Laurence R. 1969. A presuppositional analysis of Only and Even. Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS) 5. 98–107.
• Coppock, Elizabeth & David I. Beaver. 2014. Principles of the exclusive muddle. Journal of Semantics 31(3). 371–432. doi:10.1093/jos/fft007.

Class 2: Basics of exceptives (slides)

• von Fintel, Kai. 1993. Exceptive constructions. Natural Language Semantics 1(2). 123–148. doi:10.1007/BF00372560.
• von Fintel, Kai. 2000. Exceptive constructions. Seminar notes, MIT.
• Gajewski, Jon. 2008. NPI any and connected exceptive phrases. Natural Language Semantics 16(1). 69–110. doi:10.1007/s11050-007-9025-8.
• Hirsch, Aron. 2016. An unexceptional semantics for expressions of exception. Proceedings of the Penn Linguistics Conference 39. 139–148. http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol22/iss1/16.
• García-Álvarez, Iván. 2008. Generality and exception: A study in the semantics of exceptives. Stanford University PhD thesis. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1671091441&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=60577&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Class 3: Clausal exceptives (slides)

• Potsdam, Eric. 2018. Exceptives and ellipsis. North East Linguistics Society (NELS) 48. 259–268. http://users.clas.ufl.edu/potsdam/papers/NELS48.pdf.
• Potsdam, Eric & Maria Polinksy. 2019. Clausal and phrasal exceptives. Poster presented at GLOW.
• Vostrikova, Ekaterina. 2019. Conditional analysis of clausal exceptives. ms. UMass Amherst.

Class 4: Scalar only, Mirativity (slides)

• Klinedinst, Nathan. 2005. Scales and Only. Generals paper. UCLA.
• Coppock, Elizabeth & David I. Beaver. 2014. Principles of the exclusive muddle. Journal of Semantics 31(3). 371–432. doi:10.1093/jos/fft007.
• Greenberg, Yael. 2019. Even and Only: Arguing for parallels in scalarity and in constructing alternatives. North East Linguistics Society (NELS) 49. https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004278.

Class 5: only, NPI licensing, and the syntax of focus (slides)

• von Fintel, Kai. 1999. NPI licensing, Strawson entailment, and context dependency. Journal of Semantics 16(2). 97–148. doi:10.1093/jos/16.2.97.
• Wagner, Michael. 2006. Association by movement: Evidence from NPI-licensing. Natural Language Semantics 14(4). 297–324. doi:10.1007/s11050-007-9005-z.
• Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka & Hadas Kotek. 2018. Focus association by movement: Evidence from Tanglewood. Linguistic Inquiry 49(3). 441–463. doi:10.1162/ling_a_00263.

Class 6: only, bare plurals, bare conditionals (slides)

• von Fintel, Kai. 1997. Bare plurals, bare conditionals, and only. Journal of Semantics 14(1). 1–56. doi:10.1093/jos/14.1.1.
• Bassi, Itai & Moshe E. Bar-Lev. 2017. A unified existential semantics for bare conditionals. Sinn und Bedeutung 21. https://sites.google.com/site/sinnundbedeutung21/proceedings-preprints/SuB%2021%20Bar-Lev%20and%20Bassi%20final.pdf.
• Herburger, Elena. 2018. Bare conditionals in the red. Linguistics and Philosophy 42(2). 131–175. doi:10.1007/s10988-018-9242-2.

Class 7: (Minimal) sufficiency (slides)

• von Fintel, Kai & Sabine Iatridou. 2005. Anatomy of a modal. In Jon Gajewski, Valentine Hacquard, Bernard Nickel & Seth Yalcin (eds.), New work on modality. (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 51). Department of Linguistics; Philosophy, MIT.
• von Fintel, Kai & Sabine Iatridou. 2007. Anatomy of a modal construction. Linguistic Inquiry 38(3). 445–483. doi:10.1162/ling.2007.38.3.445.
• Coppock, Elizabeth & David I. Beaver. 2014. Principles of the exclusive muddle. Journal of Semantics 31(3). 371–432. doi:10.1093/jos/fft007.
• Franke, Michael. 2006. Teleological necessity and only. Proceedings of the ESSLI Student Session 11.
• Alonso-Ovalle, Luis & Aron Hirsch. 2018. Keep only strong. SALT 28. 251–270. doi:10.3765/salt.v28i0.4439.
• Coppock, Elizabeth & Anna Lindahl. 2015. Minimal sufficiency readings in conditionals. Proceedings of the Texas Linguistic Society 15. 24–38.

Class 8: The only connectives (slides)

• No readings