Meaning of "only"

["61510::GILSON" <cbmvax!uunet!pucc.princeton.edu!gilson!61510.decnet>]

Richard Kennaway writes:

>After posting one message about "only", I read And Rosta's example of a
>quite different meaning for the word, viz.

>>       Only plants reproduce asexually
>>is equivalent to:
>>       All reproduction such that it is asexual is undergone by plants.
>>I haven't worked through whether this is watertight, & I haven't written
>>any sort of rule for what _only_ means, but one can see how one might
>>proceed towards formulating the rule.

I don't think this is really a different meaning. It looks a little different
because the "only" phrase is the subject, but if we look at Richard's earlier
analysis, which said:

>"Only" seems to me to be a three-place predicate masquerading as a
>two-place one.  "X is only Y" means "X is Y and, perhaps contrary to
>expectation, is not Z", where Z is left unstated.

and put
                X = asexually reproducing species,
                Y = plants, and
                Z = (presumably) animals,

I see no difference here.

                                               Bruce