Similative disjunction and strengthening

Abstract

Many natural languages have a simplex form and a complex form of disjunction, and it is commonly assumed that the complex form has stronger exclusive and exhaustive inferences. This study investigates Hindi disjunction, in its simple form and complex form. We report that Hindi disjunction follows the general tendency, but crucially, its simplex form can also give rise to a ”similative inference”. We propose an analysis treating Hindi disjunction as a ”similative disjunction”, and demonstrate how this similative disjunction can be strengthened into an exhaustive disjunction.