Conjoined Predication and Scalar Implicature

TL;DR

This paper explores the interaction between conjunction, scalar implicature, and contextual interpretation, revealing how collective readings can cause infelicity in conjoined sentences and proposing a new pragmatic analysis.

Contribution

It provides a novel conceptual analysis of Magri's first puzzle, emphasizing the role of collective interpretation and extending pragmatic mechanisms beyond exhaustification.

Findings

Collective reading causes infelicity in certain conjoined sentences.

Scalar implicature generation involves pragmatic mechanisms beyond exhaustification.

The analysis explains the oddness in examples like "(Only) Some Italians come from a warm country and are blond."

Abstract

Magri (2016) investigates two puzzles arising from conjunction. Although Magri has proposed a solution to the second puzzle, the first remains unresolved. This first puzzle reveals a hidden interaction among quantification, collective/concurrent interpretation, and contextual updating dimensions that have yet to be explored. In essence, the problem is that certain forms of sentences like "Some Italians come from a warm country," when conjoined as in "(Only) Some Italians come from a warm country and are blond," sound infelicitous, even though no obvious alternative triggers a conflicting scalar implicature. In this paper, we offer a conceptual analysis of Magri's first puzzle by situating it within its original theoretical framework. We argue that the oddness arises from the collective or concurrent reading of the conjunctive predicate: in examples such as "(Only) Some Italians come from a warm country and are blond," this interpretation generates an indirect contextual contradiction. Moreover, we suggest that the pragmatic mechanisms governing scalar implicature generation extend beyond what is captured by exhaustification-based grammatical licensing accounts.