Some Scalar Implicatures Really Aren’t Quantity Implicatures - But 'Some'’s Are

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that ‘two’ means ‘exactly two’ and in cases where there is an ‘at least two’ interpretation, this is due to pragmatic presupposition (often about speaker’s grounds). By contrast, I argue that ‘some’ means ‘a quantity (of)’. Where there is an ‘and not all’ interpretation this is due to pragmatic inference/implicature (about speaker’s grounds) based on some kind of Gricean Quantity maxim/principle - even in cases where the implicature is embedded.