[Lingtyp] Corrective 'but (rather)'

[Mira Ariel]

Dear linguists,

I'm interested in cases where a restricting focus adverbial such as 'only'/'just' can mark the rectification of X (e.g., green) to Y (e.g., yellow), as in:

It's not green but yellow.

Uttering [Not X but/sondern Y], the speaker first rejects some option X (hence the obligatory negation in the first conjunct), in order to then replace X by a different alternative Y. Note that I'm looking for a single holistic construction:

It's not green only yellow.

and not:

It's not green. Only yellow.

Also, the rectifying phrase does not have to be a lower scalar value, as in:

She's not a judge only a lawyer.

It should also be acceptable to say:

She's not a lawyer only a judge.

It's enough for me if the 'but (rather') expression is etymologically related to an 'only' expression (this is the case for Hebrew ela).

Thanks,
Mira Ariel

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