"Enough", "too", and causal dependence

Abstract

Enough-/too-constructions (E/T constructions) have an implicative reading: e.g.,Mary was clever enough to leave early yesterday entails Mary left early yesterday. I arguethat this implicative reading is not due to the lexical semantics proper of enough/too, but dueto its bi-clausal structure (e.g., the above-mentioned example is analyzed as Mary left earlyyesterday because she was clever enough). I analyze enough and too simply as degree modifiersthat involve a comparison: enough means reaching the lower bound of an interval, whiletoo means exceeding the upper bound of an interval. Then inspired by Schulz (2011), Bagliniand Francez (2015), and Nadathur (2016), I relate the semantics of E/T constructions to causaldependence: due to some sufficiency/excess, the infinitival complement clause in E/T constructionsis episodically or generically (depending on its aspect being perfective or imperfective)true/false. I also argue that this infinitive has its tense and aspect marked on the main predicateof sentences, resulting in the seeming correlation between aspect and implication in languagesthat overtly make a distinction between perfective and imperfective aspects (e.g., French).Keywords: enough, too, comparatives, causal dependence, necessary (but not necessarily sufficient)causes, sufficient (but not necessarily necessary) causes, infinitives, implicatives.

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