exceptives: the mystery deepens

larry horn points out a further problem for the hypothesis that exceptives are licensed by universals, from imperative sentences with free choice any.

pick any card from the deck, except the joker.

it is hard to see how this sentence can be paraphrased as a universal. the best that i can come up with is:

for every x, x a card, x is such that i give you the option of picking it, except for x = the joker.

this interpretation seems forced. it interprets the imperative as giving options rather than giving an order, and moreover it involves a quantifier (any, no less) taking wide scope over the imperative force, which is generally seen as a no-no.

the tentative conclusion: exceptives appear to be licenseable by any any, regardless of its universality.