We provide a new argument for a theory according to which pre-DP "only" (as in the phrase "only wine") is always a realization of a higher covert propositional operator. The argument is based on an observed restriction on the scope possibilities of pre-DP "only" relative to modals in ellipsis configurations like the following:
(1) Jill may bring only wine. Bill may △, too. (may > only, ***only > may**)
We claim that a theory according to which pre-DP "only" is interpreted where it is pronounced, forming some kind of complex DP quantifier at LF, leaves the scope restriction in (1) mysterious.