Abstract

1. Two directions

When new phenomena are discovered, the semanticist may account for them by enriching his formal framework, or by reducing them to the complex interaction of some of its existing components. The first option may be more exciting; but the second may be more explanatory. Potts provided some welcome excitement with his groundbreaking study of expressives (Potts, to appear). Can a more conservative account be adopted? In this note, we explore a presuppositional analysis of expressives, along the lines of Macià (2002, 2006), Sauerland (2007), and Schlenker (2003). As we will see, most of the action is in the complex interaction of existing components of the semantics and of the pragmatics.