Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Subcategory of particles that in English include such words as only, also, already, still. Scalar particles indicate alternative degrees that are implicit either from the focusbackgrounding structure (
topic vs comment) or the context. Thus in the sentence Only Jacob is coming, only expresses the exclusion of other background people known from the context. Such particles can also often refer to scalar degrees, such as Even Jacob is coming, which focuses on Jacob as being particularly high on the scale in question.
Statements modified by scalar particles are generally presuppositions or cases of conven-tional implicature (see Karttunen & Peters, 1979).
References
Altmann, H. 1976. Die Gradpartikeln im Deutschen. Tübingen.
Fraser, B. 1971. An analysis of even in English. In Fillmore, C.J. and D.T.Langendoen (eds), Studies in linguistic semantics. New York. 150–78.
Horn, L. 1969. A presuppositional analysis of only and even. In Chicago Linguistic Society 5.98–107.
Jacobs, J.
1983. Focus und Skalen. Tübingen.
Karttunen, L. and S.Peters. 1979. Conventional implicatures. In C.Oh and D.Dinneen (eds), Syntax and semantics, vol. 11: Presuppositions. New York. 1–56.
König, E. 1981. The meaning of scalar particles in German. In Eickmeyer, H.-J. and H.Rieser (eds), Words, worlds, and contexts. Berlin.
Taglicht, J. 1984. Message and emphasis: on focus and scope in English. London.
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