Só/Only in temporal location contexts
This paper is about the semantic and pragmatic effects of só/only on the temporal
interpretation of sentences and discourse sequences like those presented in (b) below:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(a) O John adormeceu às 3 da manhã.
John fell asleep at 3 am.
(b) O John só adormeceu às três da manhã.
John fell asleep only at 3 am.
(a) A Ana encomendou dois livros em Maio. Recebeu-os em Julho.
Ana ordered two books in May. She got them in July.
(b) A Ana encomendou dois livros em Maio. Só os recebeu em Julho.
Ana ordered two books in May. She got them only in July.
(a) Ontem a Ana chegou da escola às 4 da tarde. Hoje chegou às cinco.
Yesterday Ana arrived from school at 4 pm. Today she arrived at 5 pm.
(b) Ontem a Ana chegou da escola às 4 da tarde. Hoje só chegou às cinco.
Yesterday Ana arrived from school at 4 pm. Today she arrived only at 5 pm.
In all three cases only/só applies (at least superficially) to a temporal locating adverbial that
represents the locating interval of the eventuality described in the sentence in which it occurs
± respectively, at 3 am, in July and at 5 pm; and in all the three cases it has an impact on the
inferences involving the temporal location of that same eventuality. In intuitive terms, in (1 b)
± an example illustrating the occurrence of only/só in single sentences, unlike what happens in
(1 a), the presence of only/só makes us infer that the eventuality of John falling asleep
happened later than would have been expected.
In formal terms, my proposal is that, in contexts such as those above, only and só above
are best analysed as expressions that apply to a location time t and trigger a comparison
between t and another triggered time, t¶VXFKWKDWW¶ < t (i.e. W¶ temporally precedes t). W¶ can
be identical to a time that is be implicitly given, or else is directly represented in the linguistic
context, and is the time at which the speaker (based on previous experience, based on worldknowledge, based on what he thinks are politeness rules, among many other possibilities)
thinks that the eventuality taking place at time t should have happened. Only/só also triggers
the implicatioQWKDWIURPWKHVSHDNHU¶VSRLQWRIYLHZWKHHYHQWXDOLW\ORFDWHGLQ t should have
happened (at least approximately) at W¶. For instance, in (1 b) only/só triggers a comparison
EHWZHHQ DP W DQG D WULJJHUHG WLPH W¶ OHW¶V VD\ PLGQLJKW W¶ EHFDXVH OHW us say, the
speaker knows that usually John falls asleep by midnight). It conveys that John should have
JRQH WR EHG DW DURXQG W¶ WKDW LV LQ WKLV FDVH right before midnight. Such a comparison is
absent in (a). In (2 b), t is the location time of the eveQWXDOLW\GHVFULEHGE\³She [Ana] got
them [the books]´DQGUHSUHVHQWVDWLPHLQWHUYDOLQFOXGHGLQWKHODUJHUWLPHLQWHUYDOWKDW-XO\
W¶¶UHSUHVHQWVW¶ is a time interval preceding t and W¶¶ that corresponds to the time at which
the speaker thinks Ana should have got the books. It lies somewhere between the time at
which Ana ordered the book and the time corresponding to the end of June. The speaker
compares t and W¶ and communicates that what happened at t should be have taken place at W¶.
Once again, the comparison and implication triggered by only/só are absent when these
expressions are suppressed (cf. (2 a). In (3 b) a comparison is triggered between t (the time at
which Ana arrived from school) and a triggered time W¶ that is identical to the time at which
she arrived yesterday, that is 4 pm. W¶ < t, and W¶ is the time at which, according to the speaker,
Ana was expected to have arrived today.
1 This proposal explains why in constructions as those under study only/só does not occur
with some kinds of temporal location adverbials: (i) only and só cannot occur with temporal
locators conveying temporal immediacy (see Draoulec 2005, for a definition of these locators)
(e.g., i mmediately, as soon as he got her letter , in the next few seconds); (ii) only and só
cannot occur with temporal locators conveying that the temporal distance between the two
relevant eventualities is short (e.g. few days later , many years ago). (iii) only and só cannot
occur with temporal locators conveying the temporal identity of two locating intervals (e.g.,
(in) the same week , the same month, the same year ); (iv) only and só cannot occur with
temporal clauses with before /antes (but occur with subordinate temporal clauses with
after/depois).
(4) #The Mayor replied to Ana only immediately / in the same week .
(5) John found out about Mary only few years ago / many hours later / # many years ago / #
few hours later .
(6) John found out about Mary only after / #before leaving Paris .
This proposal also explains why only and só are appropriate in cases like (9)-(10)
below but not in cases like (7)-(8), unless we interpret them as ironic utterances.
(7)
#I took two of these sleeping pills and fell asleep only two hours later. These pills
are very effective.
(8)
#These sleeping pills are very effective: I took two them and fell asleep only two
hours later.
(9)
I took two of these sleeping pills and fell asleep only two hours later. These pills
are totally useless.
(10)
These sleeping pills are totally useless: I took two them and fell asleep only two
hours later.
They are appropriate in (9)-(10), because the coherence of these sentences depends on
the eventuality of someone falling asleep having taken place later than the expected. As
shown above, only and só convey precisely that an eventuality took place later than we would
expect to. For the same reason, they are inappropriate in (7)-(8).
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