Separative conjunction: Evidence from Japanese non-exhaustive connectives

This paper examines the semantic behavior of Japanese non-exhaustive connectives ya, -tari, and toka in contexts that allow exhaustive interpretations. Traditionally described as markers of non-exhaustivity and open-ended listing, a qualitative analysis of natural occurrences drawn from a web corpus shows that these connectives can encode a specific semantic relation referred to as separative conjunction. According to this reading, all coordinated elements are asserted to be realized independently, across distinct temporal or contextual instances. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that this reading can give rise to iterative and distributive interpretations, especially when the utterance involves realis temporal anchoring. Contrary to previous accounts that associate these further readings with intrinsic aspectual values (particularly in the case of the converb -tari), this paper argues that such aspectual inferences are derived from the semantic properties of the separative conjunction reading, rather than from the connectives themselves. Overall, this study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the semantics of coordination and to explore the extent to which linguistic connectives and their functions can be understood through the lens of logical operators.