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P. 58
Slovenian Lectures
eight”. You cannot answer: “It’s eight, that’s true but it’s false that it’s only
eight”. If you find one true, you find the other true, if you find one false, you
find the other false. So, we have here an example of utterances which pro-
vide the same information but which do not have, which cannot have the
same follow-ups at all. In other words, the point of view about the time is
oriented differently in “It’s eight” and in “It’s only eight”. That does not at
all depend upon the information given: it depends simply on the linguistic
structure, that is to say, the sentence of which the segment is an occurrence
of. It is the word only which forces you to choose a follow-up of the “It’s ear-
ly” type, and makes a follow-up of the “It’s late” type impossible.
To show you how difficult the problem is, compare “Peter will be ar-
riving at eight” and “Peter will be arriving only at eight”. I am not going
to resolve the problem but I am simply pointing it out to you. “Peter will
be arriving at eight” has two possible follow-ups to it: “Peter will be arriv-
ing at eight, that’s really early”; “Peter will be arriving at eight, that’s really
too late” – Peter’s arrival can be represented in whichever way, as late or as
an event that is to happen early. Now, let us look at “Peter will be coming
ONLY at eight”. That means “He will not be arriving before eight, he will
not be arriving any earlier than eight”. The utterance “Peter will be arriv-
ing only at eight” is necessarily oriented towards lateness; it cannot be ori-
ented towards earliness. You can see the linguistic problem involved here
(it would take several hours to try to resolve it): “It’s only eight”, as we have
seen, is oriented towards earliness but “He’ll be arriving only at eight”, on
the contrary, is oriented towards lateness! So, only, from the argumenta-
tive point of view, has two different effects, depending on whether it mod-
ifies the time it is (“It’s only eight”) or the time at which an event happens!
That is the type of problem one has to deal with when one is in argumenta-
tive linguistics, and it is by no means an easy one. I have, for my part, tried
to find reasons for which only has those opposite effects, but all I wanted to
point out was the kind of problem one encounters when one goes into what
I call argumentative linguistics. We know that only has two opposite argu-
mentative effects. Well then, why?
I take another example, but which will still be of the same nature. The
purpose is still to show that two utterances with the same informative val-
ue do not have and cannot have the same argumentative value. Compare
“It’s almost eight” on the one hand and “It’s not eight yet” on the other, and
look for their possible follow-ups (the argumentative description of an ut-
terance requires looking for its follow-ups, because these bring out the ar-
gumentative orientation of the points of view which the utterance repre-
eight”. You cannot answer: “It’s eight, that’s true but it’s false that it’s only
eight”. If you find one true, you find the other true, if you find one false, you
find the other false. So, we have here an example of utterances which pro-
vide the same information but which do not have, which cannot have the
same follow-ups at all. In other words, the point of view about the time is
oriented differently in “It’s eight” and in “It’s only eight”. That does not at
all depend upon the information given: it depends simply on the linguistic
structure, that is to say, the sentence of which the segment is an occurrence
of. It is the word only which forces you to choose a follow-up of the “It’s ear-
ly” type, and makes a follow-up of the “It’s late” type impossible.
To show you how difficult the problem is, compare “Peter will be ar-
riving at eight” and “Peter will be arriving only at eight”. I am not going
to resolve the problem but I am simply pointing it out to you. “Peter will
be arriving at eight” has two possible follow-ups to it: “Peter will be arriv-
ing at eight, that’s really early”; “Peter will be arriving at eight, that’s really
too late” – Peter’s arrival can be represented in whichever way, as late or as
an event that is to happen early. Now, let us look at “Peter will be coming
ONLY at eight”. That means “He will not be arriving before eight, he will
not be arriving any earlier than eight”. The utterance “Peter will be arriv-
ing only at eight” is necessarily oriented towards lateness; it cannot be ori-
ented towards earliness. You can see the linguistic problem involved here
(it would take several hours to try to resolve it): “It’s only eight”, as we have
seen, is oriented towards earliness but “He’ll be arriving only at eight”, on
the contrary, is oriented towards lateness! So, only, from the argumenta-
tive point of view, has two different effects, depending on whether it mod-
ifies the time it is (“It’s only eight”) or the time at which an event happens!
That is the type of problem one has to deal with when one is in argumenta-
tive linguistics, and it is by no means an easy one. I have, for my part, tried
to find reasons for which only has those opposite effects, but all I wanted to
point out was the kind of problem one encounters when one goes into what
I call argumentative linguistics. We know that only has two opposite argu-
mentative effects. Well then, why?
I take another example, but which will still be of the same nature. The
purpose is still to show that two utterances with the same informative val-
ue do not have and cannot have the same argumentative value. Compare
“It’s almost eight” on the one hand and “It’s not eight yet” on the other, and
look for their possible follow-ups (the argumentative description of an ut-
terance requires looking for its follow-ups, because these bring out the ar-
gumentative orientation of the points of view which the utterance repre-
