NPI Intervention of too

Abstract

The additive focus particle too has an intervention effect on NPI licensing (Homer 2008, 2009). While Homer argues that it is the non-DE additive presupposition that intervenes, this analysis contrasts with generalizations that presuppositional components of licensers do not affect NPI licensing, especially weak NPIs like anything (von Fintel 1999, Chierchia 2004, Gajewski 2011, a.o.). By arguing that too asserts a conjunction between the host proposition and a propositional anaphor that refers to some salient antecedent, this paper provides an explanation of too’s intervention effect while maintaining the generalization made in Gajewski 2011 that only strong NPIs are sensitive to non-truth conditional meanings of their licensers. Noting that a fully parallel intervention effect is also found with an overt conjunction in English (Chierchia 2013), it is argued that the analysis provided for the overt conjunction can be applied directly to explain why too, a covert conjunction, intervenes with NPI licensing.