@article{Erlewine_2019, title={Explaining leftward focus association with "even" but not "only"}, volume={18}, url={https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/308}, abstractNote={<p>The ability of English VP-<em>even</em> but not VP-<em>only</em> to associate with a leftward subject (Jackendoff, 1972) has been a long-standing puzzle for the theory of focus association, and runs counter to the generalization that focus-sensitive operators associate with a focused constituent in their scope. Here I argue that such backwards association is illusory. In cases of apparent leftward subject association, <em>even</em> is associating with the subject’s predicate-internal lower copy of movement, which is within the scope of <em>even</em>. The same configuration with <em>only</em> yields an uninterpretable structure, due to independent differences in the semantic contribution of <em>even</em> and <em>only</em>. I then show that this pattern of association extends to other cases of movement as well: in general, <em>even</em> but not <em>only</em> is able to associate with material which has moved out of the operator’s scope. Patterns of leftward focus association present a new argument against the scope theory of <em>even</em>.</p>}, journal={Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung}, author={Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka}, year={2019}, month={May}, pages={128–145} }