Alternatives and jurisdiction in predication

Abstract

While many predicates can compose consistently (e.g. 'This dog is happy'), some can only compose via conjunctive material like additive particles (e.g. 'This comedy is #(also) a tragedy'). This paper asks what relation must exist between predicates for them to fall in the latter category. In previous work, I suggested that predicates require 'also' if they come from the same conceptual taxonomy. In the present paper, I show that another factor is at play, namely whether two predicates contribute the same kind of information (‘have the same jurisdiction’) in a given sentence. In particular, same-taxonomy predicates stop requiring 'also' when they are interpreted with a different jurisdiction. From the observation that jurisdiction is pertinent to whether 'also' is required, I suggest that jurisdictional identity is in fact the only factor in whether two expressions require an additive; bringing in the notion of taxonomic co-membership is superfluous.