Jovana Gajić (Göttingen)

Negated definite conjunction and its implicatures



Two different readings are possible in English when a conjunction of definite objects is negated. It is argued in the present paper that different sets of alternatives are activated in the two cases, but that this is only possible with the right interplay of the preceding context with the intonation contour of the sentence. What the two readings share is the exahustification mechanism through which they arise. Nevertheless, the number of rounds of exhaustification is different in the two cases. This raises questions about the constitution of alternative sets, the exact role of focus, as well as triggers for (re-)exhaustification.