Only reconstruction and backwards association

Abstract

B¨ uring and Hartmann (2001) provide evidence that when the German exclusive particle nur linearly precedes a sentence-initial fronted DP that reconstructs, it cannot reconstruct along with the DP. They conclude with Jacobs (1983) that nur is always a propositional operator on the clausal spine. However, Smeets and Wagner (2018) show that nur can take reconstructed scope after all, and defend an analysis where nur+DP may be parsed together as a single quantifier. Yet, a comparison with English reveals that only cannot reconstruct, bearing out the pattern that B¨ uring and Hartmann (2001) had suggested for German. We propose a new analysis that can account for both languages. We argue for our analysis based on a correlation between the apparent reconstruction of the exclusive with the DP and backwards association possibilities.