A unified analysis of Vietnamese m?i ‘just/only’ as a scale-sensitive particle

Abstract

We present a unified analysis of the Vietnamese particle m?i ‘just, only’ as an underspecified scale-sensitive exclusive particle, following work by Beck (2020) on German additive noch ‘still’. The particle m?i ranges alternatively over temporal or other focus-induced scales. In its aspectual guise, m?i ranges over temporal scales, excluding all times before the reference time, whereas in its exclusive guise, m?i operates over focus scales triggered by its focus-associate, thereby excluding all larger plural individuals containing the focused entity.