NOTES ON MÊME AND ITS ADDITIVITY

Keywords: Même. Presupposition. Additivity.

Abstract

This paper discusses the behavior of even-like particles (e.g. French même) when interacting with entailment-based scales, pragmatically incompatible alternatives and semantically incompatible alternatives. Standard approaches to even-like particles assume that such operators convey the assertion that the prejacent proposition is true; they also induce a scalar presupposition to the effect that the prejacent proposition is higher on a suitably defined scale, and an additive presupposition to the effect that an alternative proposition in the same scale is also true. We submit preliminary evidence from Italian arguing against the assumption that even-like particles are necessarily additive and suggesting that the scalar presuppositions requires a pragmatic (or “rhetorical”) ordering. 

 

Author Biographies

Salvatore Pistoia-Reda, University of Siena

Senior researcher in philosophy of language and linguistics at the University of Siena. Previously, he was a researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Berlin and at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. His research interests include semantics and pragmatics of natural languages. 

Nicoletta Armentano, University of Verona

Junior researcher at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Verona. Her research interests include the didactics of French as a foreign language, the study of plurilingualism and translation. 

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Published
2022-06-21