Generalized Free Choice and Missing Alternatives
Marie‐Christine Meyer · Journal of Semantics · 2015
In this article I propose that there are unembedded disjunctions which receive a conjunctive interpretation via recursive implicature computation. This is unexpected: since disjunction competes with conjunction, implicature computation will usually result in the negation of the conjunctive alternative. I argue that certain disjunctions do not compete with a conjunctive alternative, due to a constraint on the assertability of scalar alternatives. As a result, recursive implicature computation can strengthen matrix or into and in these cases. I discuss the pragmatic factors driving recursive implicature computation, as well as the scope of the proposed assertability condition on alternatives.