On the Non-Licensing of NPIs in the Only-Focus

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ungrammaticality of NPIs in the focus associated with only. I first show that a naïve combination of the Strawson Downward Entailing (SDE) condition of NPI licensing (von Fintel 1999) and a Horn-style semantics of only (Horn 1969; a.o.) fails to predict that NPIs are ungrammatical in the focus associated only. To solve this problem, I suggest an analysis that appeals to a semantics of only implemented with the notion of innocent exclusion (Fox 2007) and a revision of the SDE condition that refers to assignment functions. The proposed analysis suggests that NPI licensing should be independent of the information provided by the discourse context.