[Lingtyp] Corrective 'but (rather)'

[Cat Butz]

Hi Mira,

Polish:

Nie jestem studentką, tylko profesorką.
Not I'm student only professor
"I'm not a student, but a professor."

Disclaimer: I speak Polish as an L2, started to learn as an adult.

Warmest,
---
Cat Butz (she)
HHU Düsseldorf
General Linguistics


Am 09/06/2026 14:21, schrieb Mira Ariel via Lingtyp:
> 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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