The Only Thesis
Angelica M. Hill

Abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the meaning of only. This thesis presents a number of puzzling examples drawn from Kai von Fintel’s work, as well as a dataset I extracted from an online corpus. Following, Zeevat (2009), I argue that the semantic contribution of only is fundamentally a denial of expectation and extend his analysis of only such that I am able to account for the classic exclusive use of only, Kai von Fintel’s puzzling data, as well as the new data I have collected from an the online corpus.