Minimal sufficiency, plural predication, and scalarity

Authors

  • Lucas Fagen
  • Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2025.v29.1224

Abstract

Minimal sufficiency readings of exclusive modifiers (Just the thought of food makes me hungry) have resisted a comprehensive semantic analysis that accurately predicts their distribution. In this paper we show that the distribution of minimal sufficiency readings is directly correlated with the interpretation of plural arguments and that the distributional facts reflect the connection between plural predication and scalarity: sufficiency readings are licensed precisely in contexts where ordering relations over alternatives are reversed. We develop a semantics for exclusives that is capable of generating either exclusive or sufficiency readings depending on the direction of scalarity.

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Published

2025-09-22

How to Cite

Fagen, L., & Bar-Asher Siegal, E. (2025). Minimal sufficiency, plural predication, and scalarity. Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung, 29, 465–481. https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2025.v29.1224