Any : from scalarity to arbitrariness

Lucia Tovena (1) , Jacques Jayez (2)

1 ITC-IRST
2 EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales

In spite of the existence of a vast literature on any, no clear consensus has finally emerged as to its semantic nature and behaviour. We argue here that the deep
unity of any is to be found in the link that this item sets up between scalarity and arbitrariness in the sense of Fine (1985). The traditional distinction between any as a
free choice (FC) or as a polarity sensitive ( PS) element is put in a radically new perspective: any is analysed as scalar at root, along the lines of Lee & Horn (1994), but
it emerges either as FC or PS depending on which type of link between scalarity and arbitrariness on events is constructed. So, the 'two' any appear as two different but related strategies towards the same problem, instead of two parallel and accidentall similar behaviours.

Mots clés: Any; scalarity; arbitrariness

Domaines: Linguistique

Lucia Tovena, Jacques Jayez. Any : from scalarity to arbitrariness. Corblin, Franis; Godard, Danièle; Marandin, Jean-Marie. Empirical issues in formal syntax and semantics : selected papers from the Colloque de syntaxe et sémantique de Paris (CSSP 1995), P. Lang, pp.39-57, 1997. ⟨halshs-00157211⟩