scholarly journals On the Acquisition of Polarity Items: 11- to 12-Year-Olds' Comprehension of German NPIs and PPIs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Schwab ◽  
Mingya Liu ◽  
Jutta L. Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Developmental Time ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rating Task ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Polarity Sensitive

AbstractExisting work on the acquisition of polarity-sensitive expressions (PSIs) suggests that children show an early sensitivity to the restricted distribution of negative polarity items (NPIs), but may be delayed in the acquisition of positive polarity items (PPIs). However, past studies primarily targeted PSIs that are highly frequent in children’s language input. In this paper, we report an experimental investigation on children’s comprehension of two NPIs and two PPIs in German. Based on corpus data indicating that the four tested PSIs are present in child-directed speech but rare in young children’s utterances, we conducted an auditory rating task with adults and 11- to 12-year-old children. The results demonstrate that, even at 11–12 years of age, children do not yet show a completely target-like comprehension of the investigated PSIs. While they are adult-like in their responses to one of the tested NPIs, their responses did not demonstrate a categorical distinction between licensed and unlicensed PSI uses for the other tested expressions. The effect was led by a higher acceptance of sentences containing unlicensed PSIs, indicating a lack of awareness for their distributional restrictions. The results of our study pose new questions for the developmental time scale of the acquisition of polarity items.

scholarly journals Minimizers in Azerbaijani from a comparative perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venera Suleymanova ◽  
Jack Hoeksema
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Western European ◽  
Polarity Sensitive

Abstract Azerbaijani, like many other languages, has a class of negative polarity items denoting minimal measures (along dimensions such as size, length, duration, value, weight etc.), called minimizers. This paper presents an overview of this group of expressions, compares them to minimizers in the western European languages, in particular English and Dutch, identifies the various domains in which these minimizers may be used, and discusses their distribution across polarity-sensitive contexts such as negation, conditional clauses, questions, etc. The distribution we found, on the basis of both corpus data and native speaker judgments, is very similar to that of minimizers in English or Dutch, especially when differences are factored out which are due to the fact that Azerbaijani has strict negative concord, whereas English and Dutch do not. To this end, we distinguish two types of minimizers for Azerbaijani, negated minimizers preceded by heç bir ‘not one’, and minimizers preceded by bir only.

Classification of PSIs and Their Lexical Categories

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-69
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Lexical Categories ◽  
Fragment Answers ◽  
Opposite Behavior ◽  
Polarity Sensitive ◽  
Negative Counterpart

In chapter 2, the author lays out a classification of polarity-sensitive items (PSIs) and their lexical categories. PSIs include negative polarity items (NPIs), free-choice items (FCIs), positive polarity items (PPIs), and negative concord items (NCIs). General indefinites display different distributions than do NPIs. Indefinite nouns like ħada and iši function as NPIs, and they are distinct from indefinite nouns (general indefinites) that occur in the context of negation. This chapter discusses the distinctive features of NPIs and PPIs, such as scope widening. Two different types of PSIs interact with negation in interesting ways: NPIs and NCIs. One key difference between the two is that NPIs cannot function as fragment answers without negation and can occur in nonnegative contexts, such as interrogative and conditional contexts. NCIs display the opposite behavior. This chapter describes the distribution of the disjunctive particles walla/willa/ʔam ‘or’ and the negative counterpart wala ‘nor’ in polarity contexts and their status as structures for coordinate complexes in Arabic.

How Antisymmetric Is Syntax?

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 516-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuji Takano
Keyword(s):  
Linear Order ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
The Right

Since the emergence of Kayne's (1994) stimulating proposal for an antisymmetric theory of phrase structure and linear order, much work has been devoted to arguing for or against his theory as well as discussing its empirical predictions. As a result, for a number of phenomena involving rightward positioning, such as rightward adjuncts, heavy NP shift, extraposition, postverbal subjects, and postverbal constituents in OV languages, there now exist both an approach consistent with Kayne's theory (the antisymmetric approach) and another not consistent with it (the symmetric approach). In such a situation, it is often difficult to show on empirical grounds that one approach is superior to the other (see Rochemont and Culicover 1997). In what follows, I describe this situation with respect to two well-known phenomena in English: rightward positioning of adjuncts and heavy NP shift. For each of these phenomena, the symmetric and antisymmetric approaches have been proposed, and both approaches can correctly account for the data discussed in previous studies. Here, I examine the approaches from a novel point of view, showing that data involving the licensing of negative polarity items allow us to differentiate them and to decide which is the right one for each of the two empirical domains. Interestingly, the relevant facts lead to different conclusions for the two phenomena. The results have important implications for the antisymmetric view of syntax.

scholarly journals Bipolar Items

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Sumiyo Nishiguchi
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Simple Sentences

Abstract This article asserts that the Japanese wide-scope mo ‘even’ in simple sentences are bipolar items (BPIs) antilicensed or forbidden by negation and licensed in a non-monotonic (NM) environment. BPIs share the features of negative polarity items (NPIs) as well as positive polarity items (PPIs). The Dutch ooit ‘ever’, the Serbo-Croatian i-series ‘and/even’, and the Hungarian is-series ‘and/even’ are antilicensed by clausemate negation and licensed by extraclausal negation (van der Wouden, 1997; Progovac, 1994; Szabolcsi, 2002) or non-monotonic negative (and positive, for Serbo-Croatian) emotive predicates. Adding an NPI rescues BPIs in uncomfortable clausemate negation.

Introduction: Current perspectives on positive polarity

Linguistics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-300
Author(s):  
Mingya Liu ◽  
Gianina Iordăchioaia
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
The Past ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Different Sources

Abstract Polarity sensitivity has been an established key topic of linguistic research for more than half a century. The study of polarity phenomena can be extremely revealing about the internal structure of a language, as they usually involve an interaction at the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics. In the past, most attention was paid to negative polarity items. However, recent years have witnessed a growing interest in positive polarity items. As a continuation of this trend, this issue collects four papers dedicated to positive polarity items, which enrich the empirical domain with novel observations from different languages and appeal to diverse theoretical concepts such as scalarity and presupposition in their modeling of positive polarity. The results show that positive polarity is a distributional phenomenon that has different sources and most likely cannot be modeled in a unifying way, although there may be subsets of positive polarity items that allow unifying accounts.

PSIs with Head-Like Properties

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-210
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Case Theory ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Dependent Case ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case Licensing ◽  
Polarity Sensitive ◽  
Genitive Case

This chapter discusses two main issues that arise from PSIs (polarity-sensitive items) with head-like properties. These PSIs seem to be outside the (immediate) domain of their licensor. The first issue is how these PSIs are licensed in syntax and how a unified analysis can handle their distribution. The author argues that these PSIs are adverbial phrases that do not project a clausal projection and that negation licenses these PSIs either in Spec-NegP or under c-command. This unified analysis does not appeal to the problematic head–complement relation as a putative licensing configuration. Another issue that arises from these NPIs (negative polarity items) with head-like properties is their ability to host clitics with accusative and genitive case marking. This issue raises interesting questions pertaining to case theory and dependent case licensing. The author argues that negation licenses the puzzling accusative case of the pronominal complement, a conclusion with far-reaching implications to dependent case licensing in natural language.

scholarly journals Sentiment Analysis of Imran Khan’s Tweets

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-494
Author(s):  
Sadia Saeed ◽  
Tehseen Zahra ◽  
Asim Ali Fayyaz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
The Face ◽  
Negative Face

In the recent past, sentiment analysis has been an area of interests of psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, computer scientists, and linguists including corpus linguists and computational linguists. Interdisciplinary approaches to researching various issues especially the analysis of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are becoming popular nowadays. The availability of data on social media has made it easier to analyse the opinion or sentiments of its users. Analysis of these sentiments could reveal the face of users and it could help in various decision-making processes. Sentiment analysis is a system of knowing polarity (positive, negative, and neutral) in discourse. Moreover, sentiments can enable and disable certain functions of discourse and can divert the attention of the audience from important to a less important issue or otherwise, hence, there is a need to analyse the sentiments. In this research, sentiments (Polarity) of Imran Khan’s tweets are analysed with the help of R studio. Data for this study is collected from Imran Khan’s one-year’s tweets, tweeted from 1st January 2018 to 20th November 2018. Later we saved the data in. csv files. The results of the polarity check revealed that he has used all three types of sentiments that is positive, negative, and neutral. However, he mostly used neutral or free polarity items (FPIs) that is 67.41% in his tweets. Among positive and negative polarity items the number of negative polarity items (NPIs) is higher that is 23.21% as compared to positive polarity items (PPIs) which are only 9.40%. The manual analysis of results revealed that only software is not enough and there is a need to check the accuracy of the results manually. The use of negative polarity/negative face reveals that he tries to be independent and autonomous in his decisions (Goffman, 1967). The use of positive polarity items shows he tries to show his positive face to others. Moreover, sentiment analysis demonstrates the presence of themes propagated through the use of various lexical items.

The interpretation of disjunction in VP ellipsis: The case of Mandarin Chinese

2021 ◽  
pp. 014272372110209
Author(s):  
Na Gao ◽  
Peng Zhou ◽  
Rosalind Thornton ◽  
Stephen Crain
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Default Setting

It has long been noted that verb phrase (VP) ellipsis cancels the polarity sensitivity of the English Positive Polarity Items (PPIs). In recent work, it has been proposed that words for disjunction are governed by a parameter. On one value of the parameter, disjunction is a PPI for adult speakers of many languages including Mandarin Chinese. On the other value, disjunction is interpreted in situ. It has also been proposed that child language learners, across languages, initially interpret disjunction in situ, not as a PPI. Taken together, these proposals predict that child and adult speakers of Mandarin will assign the same interpretation to disjunction in sentences with VP ellipsis, but will assign a different interpretation in sentences without VP ellipsis. This study assessed these predictions. In sentences with a full VP, the adult participants analyzed disjunction as a PPI, but they interpreted disjunction in situ in sentences with VP ellipsis. The child participants interpreted disjunction in situ in sentences of both kinds. Together, the findings support the recent proposal that disjunction is governed by a lexical parameter, with a default setting.

scholarly journals Scalar properties of negative polarity superlatives

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Ulises Delgado
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Quantitative Interpretation ◽  
Polarity Sensitivity ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Scalar Properties ◽  
Polarity Sensitive

Most theories agree that polarity sensitivity must be related to scalarity one way or another. Superlatives are a good example of this, since their “endpoint nature” allows for them to be in negative contexts with a quantitative interpretation. In this paper, I follow Fauconnier’s (1975a) work in distinguishing two different types of polarity-sensitive superlatives and I show how they manifest in Spanish. I argue that in this language the distinction is formally marked, what allows us to reach different conclusions from those of Fauconnier. On this line, I will defend that both types of polarity-sensitive superlatives have scalar properties of a very different nature. Thus, while for one the quantitative reading is pragmatically-driven, for the other it is semantically-driven.

Counterfactuals to the Rescue

2021 ◽  
pp. 76-99
Author(s):  
Cleo Condoravdi
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Polarity Reversal ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Counterfactual Conditionals ◽  
The Face ◽  
Counterfactual Supposition ◽  
Polarity Sensitive

A central question for any theory of the interpretation of conditionals is what can be held constant and what must bce given up on the face of a counterfactual supposition. This chapter brings grammatical evidence to bear on the question from polarity reversal, the phenomenon where positive polarity items can exceptionally, albeit systematically, appear in the scope of negation in the antecedent of counterfactual conditionals. Taking polarity sensitive expressions to be associated with alternatives and to give rise to scalar assertions, it shows that polarity reversal can result in scalar assertions because in making a counterfactual assumption any contextual entailments are given up once the information that gives rise to them is revised. The analysis reveals the role that contextual information tied to presuppositions plays in determining a particular type of dependency between facts.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document