A Unified Theory of Polarity Sensitivity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Sensitivity ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Regional Dialects ◽  
Complex Landscape ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Negative Indefinites

This book examines polarity sensitivity—a ubiquitous phenomenon involving expressions such as anybody, nobody, ever, never, and 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 a 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 a 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 the 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.

On the Subject of Negative Auxiliary Inversion

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette ◽  
Chris Collins
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
West Texas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scope Freezing

AbstractThis article presents a novel analysis ofNegative Auxiliary Inversion(NAI) constructions such asdidn't many people eat, in which a negated auxiliary appears in pre-subject position. NAI, found in varieties including Appalachian, African American, and West Texas English, has a word order identical to a yes/no question, but is pronounced and interpreted as a declarative. We propose that NAI subjects are negative DPs, and that the negation raises from the subject DP to adjoin to Fin (a functional head in the left periphery). Three properties of NAI motivate this analysis: (i) scope freezing effects, (ii) the various possible and impossible NAI subject types, and (iii) the incompatibility of NAI constructions with true Double-Negation interpretations. Implications for theories of Negative Concord, Negative Polarity Items, and the representation of negation are discussed.

scholarly journals Ouk ´Ismen Oudén: Negative Concord and Negative Polarity in the History of Greek

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Horrocks
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Existential Quantification ◽  
Single Set

In Ancient Greek a single set of indefinite enclitic pronouns was used indifferently in both negative/affective environments (i.e. like negative polarity items (NPI)) and in positive ones (i.e. like positive polarity items (PPI)). At the same time the negative pronouns used as negative quantifiers (NQ) were also employed as emphatic NPIs, with negative concord. The two functions of each class (i.e. PPI-like vs NPI-like, NQ vs NPI) were determined by syntactic distribution. In the specific case of negative sentences, an indefinite before a sentential negative marker (NM) functioned like a PPI but after a NM like an NPI, while a negative pronoun before a NM was an NQ but after an NM an NPI. This pattern was at odds with the canonical VSO clause structure that evolved in later antiquity, in which focal constituents were contrastively stressed and fronted to the left periphery: neither indefinite nor negative pronouns could be focalised because of the prosodic and/or semantic restrictions on their distribution. This deficiency was eventually remedied by formal/prosodic recharacterisation, the loss of NQs and the generalisation of NPIs to all syntactic positions available to DPs, including the focus position, a process that triggered their reinterpretation as involving universal quantification over negation rather than, as before, existential quantification under negation. The Modern Greek PPI kápjos and NPI kanís are traced from their origins in Ancient Greek and their role in the evolution of the system is explored. The final outcome is typologically to be expected in so far as NQs are redundant in a system in which NPIs appear freely both before and after NMs.

Look before you move

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Leal
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Rating Task ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Visual Rating ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Clitic Left Dislocation ◽  
Discourse Interface

The present study examines whether, as proposed by the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), the syntax-discourse interface is especially vulnerable to non-native optionality even at very advanced levels. I focus on the acquisition of Clitic Left Dislocation in Spanish (CLLD), a structure that involves both syntax and discourse, when it combines with other structures at the left periphery (iterative topics, Fronted Focus, and wh-constructions). CLLD is a realization of topicalization requiring the integration of syntactic and discourse knowledge. This study provides data from an audio-visual rating task completed by 120 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels and 27 monolingual native speakers. Results showed evidence that the most advanced learners had acquired the restrictions of these structures in a native-like way and supports López’s (2009) syntactic analysis of CLLD, whereby CLLD is generated through movement so that the pragmatic features [+anaphor]/[+contrast] can be assigned to the dislocated element.

Form and Meaning of (Indefinite) Pronouns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf Koeneman ◽  
Hedde Zeijlstra
Keyword(s):  
Free Choice ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Semantic Function ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
Negative Indefinites ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Indefinite Pronouns

The relation between the morphological form of a pronoun and its semantic function is not always transparent, and syncretism abounds in natural languages. In a language like English, for instance, three types of indefinite pronouns can be identified, often grouped in series: the some-series, the any-series, and the no-series. However, this does not mean that there are also three semantic functions for indefinite pronouns. Haspelmath (1997), in fact distinguishes nine functions. Closer inspection shows that these nine functions must be reduced to four main functions of indefinites, each with a number of subfunctions: (i) Negative Polarity Items; (ii) Free-Choice Items; (iii) negative indefinites; and (iv) positive or existential indefinites. These functions and subfunctions can be morphologically realized differently across languages, but don’t have to. In English, functions (i) and (ii), unlike (iii) and (iv), may morphologically group together, both expressed by the any-series. Where morphological correspondences between the kinds of functions that indefinites may express call for a classification, such classifications turn out to be semantically well motivated too. Similar observations can be made for definite pronouns, where it turns out that various functions, such as the first person inclusive/exclusive distinction or dual number, are sometimes, but not always morphologically distinguished, showing that these may be subfunctions of higher, more general functions. The question as to how to demarcate the landscape of indefinite and definite pronouns thus does not depend on semantic differences alone: Morphological differences are at least as much telling. The interplay between morphological and semantic properties can provide serious answers to how to define indefinites and the various forms and functions that these may take on.

Political Dynamics of the Post-Communist Transition: A Comparative Perspective

1991 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Bova
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Reform Program ◽  
The World ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Gorbachev Era

This article makes a case for viewing the politics of regime transition in communist states as a subcategory of the more generic phenomenon of transition from authoritarian rule. Drawing on case studies from Latin America and Southern Europe and from the more theoretical literature on postauthoritarian transitions that those cases have generated, the article reexamines the politics of reform in the Gorbachev-era USSR. This comparative approach shows that the dynamics of the liberalization process in the USSR adhere to a model of political change previously manifested in other parts of the world. Specifically, it provides a clearer understanding of the initial vitality and subsequent disintegration of Gorbachev's centrist reform program, as well as a new perspective from which to reevaluate Gorbachev's often-criticized program of regime democratization.

Negation in Old High German

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Jäger
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Specific Question ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Negative Indefinites

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to give a syntactic analysis of sentential negation in the history of German with special emphasis on Old High German. This analysis attributes the main changes in the syntax of negation not to a change in syntactic structure but to changes in the lexical filling of the head and specifier of NegP. In addition, the more specific question of negative indefinites and negative concord (NC) in Old High German is discussed. It is argued that negative indefinites should be analysed as semantically non-negative but simply formally neg-marked. It is assumed that there is no obligatory movement of n-indefinites to SpecNegP, neither overtly nor covertly.

Patterns of (inter)subjectivity

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Hofmockel
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
Discourse Patterns ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Right ◽  
Subjective Meanings

Abstract The prevalent hypothesis in research on pragmatic markers suggests that the left periphery of an utterance attracts predominantly subjective meanings, whereas the right periphery is the locus of intersubjective meanings. The goal of this paper is to test this hypothesis for but as used in a dataset of spoken Glaswegian English, a variety in which but may occur in both left- and right-peripheral positions. Considering that but derives its discursive meaning not per se, but from its embeddedness in particularized contexts, the methodological framework integrates the notion of (inter)subjectivity with the interactional-sociolinguistic concept of contextualization cue to identify (inter)subjective patterned co-occurrences for but. A fine-grained analysis of the patterns but forms with subjective and intersubjective cues in its local linguistic context shows that discourse patterns of left-peripheral but tend to foreground subjective meanings, while discourse patterns of right-peripheral but tend to foreground more intersubjective meanings, supporting the hypothesis of peripheral asymmetry.

scholarly journals Sakha 'da(qany)': Negative Polarity, Conjunction, and Focus

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Ian L. Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Sensitivity ◽  
Similar Elements

This paper discusses the quantifier particle da(qany) in the Siberian Turkic language Sakha (also known as "Yakut").  Focusing on its distribution in negative polarity items (NPIs) and doubled coordination constructions, it is shown that it has a distribution which is far more restricted than similar elements in other languages. In order to account for the semantics of this element, it is argued in an exhaustification-based theory of polarity sensitivity, that da(qany)'s main semantic contribution is to mark the alternative of its host as obligatorily active.

scholarly journals Weapons, Body Postures, and the Quest for Dominance in Robberies

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floris Mosselman ◽  
Don Weenink ◽  
Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Video Analysis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Body Postures ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Qualitative Analyses

Objective: A small-scale exploration of the use of video analysis to study robberies. We analyze the use of weapons as part of the body posturing of robbers as they attempt to attain dominance. Methods: Qualitative analyses of video footage of 23 shop robberies. We used Observer XT software (version 12) for fine-grained multimodal coding, capturing diverse bodily behavior by various actors simultaneously. We also constructed story lines to understand the robberies as hermeneutic whole cases. Results: Robbers attain dominance by using weapons that afford aggrandizing posturing and forward movements. Guns rather than knives seemed to fit more easily with such posturing. Also, victims were more likely to show minimizing postures when confronted with guns. Thus, guns, as part of aggrandizing posturing, offer more support to robbers’ claims to dominance in addition to their more lethal power. In the cases where resistance occurred, robbers either expressed insecure body movements or minimizing postures and related weapon usage or they failed to impose a robbery frame as the victims did not seem to comprehend the situation initially. Conclusions: Video analysis opens up a new perspective of how violent crime unfolds as sequences of bodily movements. We provide methodological recommendations and suggest a larger scale comparative project.

scholarly journals Locality in the acquisition of object A’-dependencies: insights from French

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Durrleman ◽  
Anamaria Bentea
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Object A ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Performance Accuracy ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
Feature Overlap ◽  
Pattern Of Performance ◽  
Object Relative

Children’s difficulties with dependencies involving movement of an object to the left periphery of the clause (object relative clauses/RCs and wh-questions), have been explained in terms of intervention effects arising when the moved object and the intervening subject share a lexical N feature (Friedmann, Belletti & Rizzi 2009). Such an account raises various questions: (1) Do these effects hold in the absence of a lexical N feature when the object and the intervener share other relevant features? (2) Do phi-features with a semantic role modulate such effects? (3) Does the degree of feature overlap determine a gradience in performance? We addressed these in three sentence-picture matching studies with French-speaking children (4;8 to 6;3), by assessing comprehension of (1) subject and object RCs headed by the demonstrative pronouns celui/celle and matching or mismatching in number; (2) object RCs headed by a lexical N and matching or mismatching in animacy; (3) object who- and which-questions. Our results show that mismatches in number, not in animacy, enhance comprehension of object RCs, even in the absence of a lexical N feature, and confirm previous findings that object who-questions yield better comprehension than object which-questions. Comparing across studies, the following gradation emerges with respect to performance accuracy: disjunction > intersection > inclusion. The global interpretation of these findings is that fine-grained phi-features determining movement are both sufficient and necessary for locality, and the degree of overlap of these features can capture the pattern of performance observed in children, namely higher accuracy as featural differences increase.

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