A Scalar Opposite of Scalar Only

In English, the adverb only/merely contributes to both the assertion and the presupposition of the sentence in which it occurs (Horn 1969, Klinedinst 2005, van Rooij & Schulz 2007, Beaver & Clark 2008, Roberts 2006, 2011, a.o.). The sentence in (1) presupposes that the janitor is ranked low on some contextually relevant scale (scalarity) and asserts that Maria did not talk to a person of a higher rank on the scale than the janitor (exclusivity). Only additionally contributes a presupposition that a proposition from the focus alternatives at least as strong as the prejacent holds, where the prejacent is the proposition that Maria talked to the janitor. I propose that the Polish adverb aż makes exactly the opposite contribution to scalar only. The sentence in (2), in contrast to (1), conveys that the janitor is high on some contextual scale (which is, of course, unusual in typical contexts).