[Lingtyp] Corrective 'but (rather)'

[Mira Ariel]

Thanks for this!

Just off the top of my head (this is very much the first steps in this research).
 
The 'only' interpretation:
1. Cannot be pronounced within a single intonation unit.
2. Requires the second alternative to be construed as a weaker scalar term.
3. Need not be abridged (It's not green, it's only yellow)

The 'corrective' interpretation:
1. Can be pronounced in 1 or 2 intonation units. 
2. First conjunct cannot receive final falling intonation, a giveaway for the holistic structure.
2. Oblivious to scalar structure
3. Very much preferably abridged (? It's not green but it's yellow). 
3. Yellow is the only alternative to green, but there may be other colors in the picture. It's just that there's no green. 

Having said that, it's not inconceivable to me that the 'only' interpretation can evolve into the 'sondern' interpretation with the other differences accompanying the change. 

German 
Bjoren: In German (my L1) you can say

(1)	Ich bin kein Student, nur Professor. [with a falling intonation on "Student" and a rising one on "nur"]

Mira: And you don't need to construe 'professor' here as a weaker scalar term than student? Because there ARE contexts where 'student' would be the stronger term, of course. (1) Ironic contexts; (2) A context where students get a discount on tickets to university concerts.

Bjoren: It seems to be worse with the translation of the English example with the adjective
(2)	Es ist nicht grün, nur gelb.
Mira: Maybe because it's harder to construe a scale between he two colors? 

Best,

Mira

-----Original Message-----
From: Wiemer, Bjoern <wiemerb at uni-mainz.de> 
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2026 2:52 PM
To: Cat Butz <Cat.Butz at hhu.de>; Mira Ariel <mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: RE: [Lingtyp] Corrective 'but (rather)'

Hello everybody,
the Polish example is very much to the point (and entirely idiomatic, although my Polish is also L2). But I'm wondering how we (as linguists) want to distinguish "holistic"

>It's not green only yellow. _
> 
> from "non-holistic"
> 
> _It's not green. Only yellow._
>

In German (my L1) you can say

(1)	Ich bin kein Student, nur Professor. [with a falling intonation on "Student" and a rising one on "nur"]

And you don't need to construe 'professor' here as a weaker scalar term? 

It seems to be worse with the translation of the English example with the adjective
(2)	Es ist nicht grün, nur gelb.

I'm unaware of any empirical (corpus-based etc.) investigation for German (it should include also the question whether "nur" differs from "bloß" in this regard; both are translational equivalents of "only, but"). However, even with a corpus at hand, how would we solve the question of unambiguously stating whether a construction is coordinative ("holistic") or not?

Best,
Björn.




-----Original Message-----
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> On Behalf Of Cat Butz via Lingtyp
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2026 1:41 PM
To: Mira Ariel <mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: [Lingtyp] Corrective 'but (rather)'

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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