Scalar implicatures in non-monotonic environments

Abstract

Scalar implicatures (SIs) have been traditionally analyzed as pragmatic inferences that arise after semantic computation. Recent studies, however, have presented various challenges to this classic analysis; for instance, it has been claimed that SIs can be interpreted within the scope of various semantic operators. These observations motivate a grammatical analysis of SIs: SIs are derived during or before semantic computation. Among various kinds of evidence for the grammati- cal approach to SIs, especially convincing one is SIs embedded in non-monotonic (NM) environments, which post-semantic analyses have difficulty deriving. This paper introduces a new example of NM operators that allow the SI-embedding in their scope, and I thereby provide further empirical support for the grammatical analysis. On the other hand, I will also show that not all NM operators behave in the same way with respect to SI-embedding. It will turn out that Strawson non- monotonicity is required to embed SIs in the negative component of NM envi- ronments; i.e. SI-embedding is unavailable if the NMity can be decomposed into monotonic assertion and monotonic presupposition.