Contrast, Denial and Negation

Abstract

The aim of this paper lies in providing a unified analysis of the meanings of the connective but in English and their counterpart particles in Korean. The two meanings of but, i.e., contrast and denial of expection, are accounted for in terms of a unitary approach in which the two meanings are argued to have the same core meaning differing from each other in the amount of inference necessary to derive the representation on which the connective operates. The representations are figuratively shown by means of scales of meaning. Korean examples are also examined to show that Korean employs more complex methods of representing the relations between various meanings of but.