Empirical Constraints on Accounts of Too

A wide-spread view is that the distribution of too falls apart in just two cases: either too can appear and then it must appear or it is not allowed to appear and then it is forbidden. In the first case, the context supplies a proper antecedent for too, in the second case it does not. The paper argues that there are also optional uses and cases where there is a proper antecedent, but too is better avoided. The paper discusses the problems these observations pose to existing theories about the production and interpretation of additive particles like too and suggests some solutions.