Exclusive Company: Only and the Dynamics of Vertical Inference ...

14 Only and the Dynamics of Vertical Inference
426-8); van Benthem (1991: fn. 4); and von Fintel (1995) for arguments to this
effect.
De Mey (1991), on the other hand, argues that only is a determiner in
sentences like (31 'c). Even if de Mey is essentially correct, however, there is
another take on the question. 19 As van Benthem (1986: 8) observes,
conservativity is motivated by 'the privileged role of the first argument in a
determiner statement: it "sets the stage"'. But in an only sentence like (31 'c), it is
not only plus its focus argument that 'sets the stage', as the principle of
conversion shows. If (31) represents traditional conservativity, let us say that
every natural language determiner is either traditionally conservative or NEO-
CONSERVATIVE in the sense defined in (32) and illustrated in (32'):
(32) a determiner D is NEO-CONSERVATIVE iff [D(A)(B) •• D(A B)(B)]
(32') Only willows weep