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Polarity-Sensitive Expressions

Polarity-Sensitive Expressions PDF Author: Hideki Kishimoto
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110755122
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Book Description
Polarity (positive, negative) is one of the most fundamental concepts in the system of language and there are many expressions that are sensitive to polarity. For example, any in English and wh-mo in Japanese appear in negative contexts, but not in positive contexts. While previous studies have shown that polarity-sensitive expressions are a general phenomenon in languages, it has also become clear that there are variations in polarity-sensitive expressions. This volume explores the variations in polarity-sensitive expressions through comparisons between Japanese and other languages, such as English, German, Spanish, and Old Japanese, and examines the environments and contexts in which polarity-sensitive expressions occur, as well as the types of (cross-linguistic) variation allowed. The value of the present volume lies in its inclusion of research papers inquiring into various types of polarity-sensitive expressions, such as negative-, positive-, and discourse-sensitive polarity items as well as their variations. The research indicates new directions for the study of polarity-sensitive expressions in the fields of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics.

Polarity-Sensitive Expressions

Polarity-Sensitive Expressions PDF Author: Hideki Kishimoto
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110755122
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Book Description
Polarity (positive, negative) is one of the most fundamental concepts in the system of language and there are many expressions that are sensitive to polarity. For example, any in English and wh-mo in Japanese appear in negative contexts, but not in positive contexts. While previous studies have shown that polarity-sensitive expressions are a general phenomenon in languages, it has also become clear that there are variations in polarity-sensitive expressions. This volume explores the variations in polarity-sensitive expressions through comparisons between Japanese and other languages, such as English, German, Spanish, and Old Japanese, and examines the environments and contexts in which polarity-sensitive expressions occur, as well as the types of (cross-linguistic) variation allowed. The value of the present volume lies in its inclusion of research papers inquiring into various types of polarity-sensitive expressions, such as negative-, positive-, and discourse-sensitive polarity items as well as their variations. The research indicates new directions for the study of polarity-sensitive expressions in the fields of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics.

Polarity Sensitivity as (non) Veridical Dependency

Polarity Sensitivity as (non) Veridical Dependency PDF Author: Anastasia Giannakidou
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027227446
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
Polarity phenomena have been known to linguists since Klima's seminal work on English negation. In this monograph Giannakidou presents a novel theory of polarity which avoids the empirical and conceptual problems of previous approaches by introducing a notion wider than negation and downward entailment: (non)veridicality. The leading idea is that the various polarity phenomena observed in language are manifestations of the dependency of certain expessions, i.e. polarity items, to the (non)veridicality of the context of appearence. Dependencies to negation or downward entailment emerge as subcases of nonveridicality.The (non)veridical dependency may be positive (licensing), or negative (anti-licensing), and arises from the sensitivity semantics of polarity items. The book is also concerned with the syntactic mapping of the sensitivity dependency. It is argued that licensing does not necessarily correspond to a requirement that the licensee be in the scope of the licenser. In some cases, for instance for the interpretation of negative concord, the reverse is required: that the licensee takes the licenser in its scope. The theory is applied to an extended set of old and new data concerning affective, free-choice dependencies, and mood choice in relative clauses. The primary focus is on Greek, but data from Dutch, English, and to a lesser extend Romance and Slavic, are also considered.

Perspectives on Negation and Polarity Items

Perspectives on Negation and Polarity Items PDF Author: Jack Hoeksema
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027299161
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Book Description
Perspectives on Negation and Polarity Items contains a selection of papers on the semantics, acquisition and licensing behavior of negation. Negation, being one of the prevalent features of any human language, has many facets of interest to linguists, psychologists and philosophers alike. In recent years, much attention has been paid to the complicated distributional patterns of polarity items. Many of the contributions in this volume are devoted to the study of one or more of these items in langages such as English (Laurence Horn, Anita Mittwoch, Chris Kennedy), Dutch (Jack Hoeksema and Hotze Rullmann, Henny Klein, Gertjan Postma), German (Gabriel Falkenberg), Hindi (Utpal Lahiri) and Greek (Anastasia Giannakidou). In addition, some general issues surrounding negation are addressed, such as the characterization of the notion “strength of negation” (Jay Atlas), the problem of NEG-raising (Lucia Tovena), the interaction of negation and modality (Johan van der Auwera) and the acquisition of negation (Kenneth Drozd).

From Words to Discourse

From Words to Discourse PDF Author: Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 0585475296
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Book Description
An area of linguistic research can be considered mature when the validity of theoretical and empirical results is tested cross-linguistically and when predictions from different languages influence and modify the course of theoretical development. The semantics/pragmatics interface poses a special challenge in this respect because of its interdisciplinary and multi-theoretical nature. This volume attempts to bridge the gap between theory and empirical analysis by focussing on several aspects of the semantics and the pragmatics of Spanish from a variety of theoretical points of view. Some of the papers were selected from those presented at the International Conference "Semantics and Pragmatics of Spanish" (Ohio State University, 1999). Others are invited contributions from leading scholars in the field. Among the topics covered are several that have been the subject of intense debate, whereas others represent subtle data patterns not considered so far. The topics include the proper characterization of tense and aspect, the subjunctive, verbal periphrases, stage/individual level predication, the interpretation of infinitives in embedded and adjunct clauses, the subjunctive mood, demonstratives, quantification of excess, exception phrases, binding phenomena, propositional negative polarity items, particles of politeness, and pronominal doubling. Overall, the analysis of these subjects contributes new findings to prominent theories in the field, such as possible world semantics, relevance theory, mental spaces, type coercion, generalized quantifier theory, dynamic semantics, and the theory of logical form.

The Oxford Handbook of Negation

The Oxford Handbook of Negation PDF Author: Viviane Déprez
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192566261
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 889

Book Description
In this volume, international experts in negation provide a comprehensive overview of cross-linguistic and philosophical research in the field, as well as accounts of more recent results from experimental linguistics, psycholinguistics, and neuroscience. The volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach to a range of fundamental questions ranging from why negation displays so many distinct linguistic forms to how prosody and gesture participate in the interpretation of negative utterances. Following an introduction from the editors, the chapters are arranged in eight parts that explore, respectively, the fundamentals of negation; issues in syntax; the syntax-semantics interface; semantics and pragmatics; negative dependencies; synchronic and diachronic variation; the emergence and acquisition of negation; and experimental investigations of negation. The volume will be an essential reference for students and researchers across a wide range of disciplines, and will facilitate further interdisciplinary work in the field.

A Unified Theory of Polarity Sensitivity

A Unified Theory of Polarity Sensitivity PDF Author: Ahmad Alqassas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197554881
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
"This book examines polarity sensitivity - a ubiquitous phenomenon involving expressions such as anybody, nobody, ever, never, somebody and their counterparts in other languages with particular focus on Arabic. These expressions belong to different classes such as negative and positive polarity, negative concord, and negative indefinites, which led to examining their syntax and semantics separately. In this book, Ahmad Alqassas pursues unified approach that relies on examining the interaction between the various types of polarity sensitivity. Treating this interaction is fundamental for scrutinizing their licensing conditions. Alqassas draws on data from Standard Arabic and the major regional dialects represented by Jordanian, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Qatari. The book provides a new perspective on the syntax-semantic interface and develops a unified syntactic analysis for polarity sensitivity. Through the (micro)comparative approach, Alqassas explains the distributional contrasts with a minimal set of universal syntactic operations such as Merge, Move and Agree; and fine-grained inventory of negative formal features for polarity items and their licensors. The features are simple invisibles that paint a complex landscape of polarity. The results suggest that syntactic computation of Arabic polarity (externally merged in left periphery) is subservient to the conceptual-intentional interface. Alqassas argues for last resort insertion of covert negation operators in the CP layer to interpret non-strict NCIs, which is an extra mechanism that serves the semantic interface, but adds to the complexity of syntactic computation. Likewise, head NPIs in the left periphery require licensing by operators higher than the tense phrase, adding more constraints on the syntactic licensing"--

The Emergence of Meaning

The Emergence of Meaning PDF Author: Stephen Crain
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521858097
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Book Description
An investigation into the underlying logic of human languages which looks at how children acquire English and Mandarin.

Clitic and Affix Combinations

Clitic and Affix Combinations PDF Author: Lorie Heggie
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027227980
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
In this volume, the relationship between clitics and affixes and their combinatorial properties has led to a serious discussion of the interface between syntax, morphology, semantics, and phonology that draws on a variety of theoretical perspectives (e.g., HPSG , Optimality Theory, Minimalism). Clitic/affix phenomena provide a rich range of data, not only for the identification of an affix vs. clitic, but also for the best way to explain ordering constraints, some of which are contradictory. A range of languages are considered, including Romance and Slavic languages, as well as Turkish, Greek, Icelandic, Korean, and Passamaquoddy. Moreover, several articles consider dialectal microparameterization, notably in Spanish, French, and Occitan. This volume thus reflects current debate on issues such as clitic ordering constraints, the relationship of clitics to inalienable possession and the left periphery, and templatic approaches to affixes vs. clitics while examining a broad range of languages.

The Evaluability Hypothesis

The Evaluability Hypothesis PDF Author: Johan Brandtler
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255660
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Book Description
Although the field of polarity is well researched, this monograph offers a new take on polarity sensitivity that both challenges and incorporates previous theories. Based primarily on Swedish data, it presents new solutions to long-standing problems, such as the non-complementary distribution of NPIs and PPIs in yes/no-questions and conditionals, long distance licensing by superordinate elements, and the occurrence of polarity items in wh-questions. It is argued that polarity sensitivity can be understood in terms of evaluability. Lacking any immediate predecessor in the literature, evaluability refers to the possibility of accepting or rejecting an utterance as true in a communicative exchange. Intriguingly, the evaluable status of a clause is shown to have syntactic correlates in Swedish, mirrored in the configuration of the C-domain. This book is of interest to scholars studying the interplay between syntax, semantics and pragmatics, particularly those working on negation and polarity.

Expression and Interpretation of Negation

Expression and Interpretation of Negation PDF Author: Henriëtte de Swart
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048131634
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
This study in cross-linguistic semantics deploys the framework of bi-directional Optimality Theory to develop a typology of the relationship between syntax and semantics in negation markers and negation indefinites.