On the Meaning of Instead of

Abstract

In order to account for the meaning and distribution of instead of, this paper entertains two approaches, namely the conjunction approach and the focus particle approach. Building upon the proposal of Jeong & Chae (2013), the conjunction approach defines instead of as a generalized conjunction whose second conjunct composes a negative proposition. While this approach can handle the cross-categorial distribution of instead of, it cannot deal with the semantic restriction imposed upon the apparent conjuncts of instead of; namely that they are not just contrastive but also incompatible with each other. This restriction suggests that the elements conjoined by instead of are alternatives rather than conjuncts. The focus particle approach treats instead of as a type of exclusive focus particle. The meaning of instead of is a function that takes a set of alternative propositions C and propositions p and q (such that p and q belong to C) and asserts that p is true and q is false. The focus particle approach can not only deal with the distribution of instead of, but also offer a clear account for the problem that is not captured under the conjunction approach. The behavior of instead of embedded under so-called presupposition holes confirms that the falsity of q is part of assertion, contra Ogihara’s (2013) presuppositional approach.