A Binding Approach to Polarity Sensitivity

A Binding Approach to Polarity Sensitivity PDF Author: Ljiljana Progovac
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 850

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Book Description

A Binding Approach to Polarity Sensitivity

A Binding Approach to Polarity Sensitivity PDF Author: Ljiljana Progovac
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 850

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Book Description


The Fine Structure of Polarity Sensitivity

The Fine Structure of Polarity Sensitivity PDF Author: Lucia M. Tovena
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135671656
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
First Published in 1998. Part of the Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series, this study investigates the phenomenon of polarity sensitivity. It proposes a new perspective which focuses on the behaviour and properties of sensitive items and the phrases they form. It originated in the observation that the fine structure of the phenomenon requires a more articulated analysis than the standard one based on licensing conditions.

Polarity Sensitivity as (Non)Veridical Dependency

Polarity Sensitivity as (Non)Veridical Dependency PDF Author: Anastasia Giannakidou
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027282285
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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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.

Negation and Polarity

Negation and Polarity PDF Author: Danielle Forget
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027236607
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
In the last decade, there has been a revival of interest regarding negation and polarity, with much cross-fertilization between semantic and syntactic approaches. The papers in the present volume address key issues regarding the syntax and semantics of negation and polarity, including both synchronic and diachronic perpectives. Central to the discussions are the distribution of negative markers and the structure of the clause, negative concord phenomena, licensing of polarity items, similarities between Neg-movement and wh-movement. The papers, by main contributors to the field, reflect different theoretical frameworks, including Principles and Parameters and Minimalist approaches, Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Formal Semantics, or approaches interested in pragmatics. The volume is of interest to syntacticians, semanticians, historical linguists, typologists, and philosophers.

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

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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.

Negation and Polarity

Negation and Polarity PDF Author: Laurence R. Horn
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191584398
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Negation is a central feature of language and cognition, interacting with all areas of grammar as well as with the philosophy of language. Whereas there is a cross-linguistic uniformity in logical and semantic aspects of negation, there is a diversity of syntactic and morphological forms and rules. This asymmetry in function and form poses problems for syntactic and universal grammar theory and for the study of the interface between syntax and discourse. It is particularly evident in negative polarity–words and phrases which can appear only in negative sentences. The exploration of negation and negative polarity phenomena and their implications for linguistic theory are the main themes of this book.

Dynamics, Polarity and Quantification

Dynamics, Polarity and Quantification PDF Author: Makoto Kanazawa
Publisher: Center for the Study of Language (CSLI)
ISBN: 9781881526414
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The topics of the papers in this collection run the gamut from empirical coverage of polarity item systems in a variety of languages to results in metatheoretical reasoning about quantifier reducibility. A recurrent theme throughout is the improvement (or replacement) of notions of quantificational scope in linguistic analysis by formally sophisticated analyses of the properties of quantifiers and their dynamic interpretations. The authors have written to admirable standards of formalisation and clarity of exposition and their results deserve thoughtful consideration and incorporation into linguistic semantics.

The Syntax of Negation and the Licensing of Negative Polarity Items in Hindi

The Syntax of Negation and the Licensing of Negative Polarity Items in Hindi PDF Author: Rajesh Kumar
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135504687
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
This books studies syntax of NPIs and their interaction with sentential negatives in Hindi. It outlines the clause structure of Hindi and locates the syntactic position of sentential negatives as well as constituent negatives within the structure. It is argued that sentential negative in Hindi negation marker heads its own maximal projection, NegP, which is immediately dominated by TP. In addition to locating the position of negation markers in the clause structure, it outlines the distribution of negative polarity items (NPIs) in Hindi and the structural constraints on their licensing by sentential negative. The book argues that an NPI in Hindi is licensed overtly in the course of derivation by a c-commanding negative marker. The bulk of the evidence presented in this book argues against previous theoretical accounts that claim that NPI licensing involves covert syntactic operations such as LF movement or reconstruction. With respect to the classification of NPIs , this book also shows the existence of two different types of NPIs in Hindi; namely, strong NPIs and weak NPIs. Strong NPIs require a clause mate c-commanding negative licensor, whereas weak NPIs are quantifiers and are similar to free choice 'any' in English that are interpreted as NPIs in the presence of a c-commanding negative licensor.

Configurations of Sentential Complementation

Configurations of Sentential Complementation PDF Author: Johan Rooryck
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113466091X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
The investigation of sentential complementation focuses on properties of sentences that are embedded in other sentences. This book brings together a variety of studies on this topic in the framework of generative grammar. The first part of the book focuses on infinitival complements. The author provides new perspectives on raising and control, longstanding problems in infinitival complementation. He then examines the problem of clitic ordering in infinitives in Romance languages. The second part of the book addresses various aspects of Wh- sentences: extraction from negative and factive islands, agreement in relative clauses, and the relation between French relative and interrogative qui and que.

The Ups and Downs of Child Language

The Ups and Downs of Child Language PDF Author: Andrea Gualmini
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135875367
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
The new experimental evidence presented in The Ups and Downs of Child Language shows that it is possible to extend research on child language to children's semantic competence, adopting the same theoretical framework that has proven useful to the study of children's syntactic competence. Andrea Gualmini investigates the role of entailment relations for child language in a series of interconnected experiments assessing children's negation and their interpretation of words like or, every, and some. Comparing his study to other models of language acquisition and characterizing the observed differences between children and adults, Gualmini asserts that even in the domain of semantic competence there is no reason to assume that child language differs from adult language in ways that would exceed the boundary conditions imposed by Universal Grammar.