The Fine Structure of Polarity Sensitivity

The Fine Structure of Polarity Sensitivity
Author: Lucia M. Tovena
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1135671656

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-Sensitive Expressions

Polarity-Sensitive Expressions
Author: Hideki Kishimoto
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2023-12-18
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 3110755122

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
Author: Anastasia Giannakidou
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 299
Release: 1998-10-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027282285

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.

Plurals and Events

Plurals and Events
Author: Barry Schein
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 1993
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780262193344

Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. How do we make sense of sentences with plural noun phrases in them? In Plurals and Events, Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. Schein's highly original argument should have significant impact on how natural-language semantics is done, with repercussions for philosophy and logic. The book opens with foundational arguments that the logical language should have four major features: reduction to singular predication via a Davidsonian logical form, amereology of events, a logical syntax that allows the constituents of a Davidsonian analysis to be predicated of distinct events and separated from one another by other logical elements, and descriptive anaphors that cross-refer to the events described by antecedent clauses. A semantics for plurality and quantification is developed in the remaining chapters, which address some of the empirical and formal questions raised by the variety of interpretations in which plurals and quantifiers participate.

Deconstructing Language Structure and Meaning

Deconstructing Language Structure and Meaning
Author: Mihaela Tănase-Dogaru
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2021-07-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1527571815

This volume brings together a number of researchers working on generative syntax and semantics, language acquisition and phonology to explore various theoretical frameworks, ranging from generative grammar and formal semantics to more descriptive approaches. The contributions gathered here investigate various aspects in the syntax, semantics, phonology and acquisition of Romanian in comparison with other (mainly Romance) languages. The book will be of interest to linguists who are keen on keeping up with the latest advances in the field of Romance studies, as well as those whose research bears on languages such as Hungarian, German, and Maltese, among others.

The Routledge Handbook of Semantics

The Routledge Handbook of Semantics
Author: Nick Riemer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 762
Release: 2015-07-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317412443

The Routledge Handbook of Semantics provides a broad and state-of-the-art survey of this field, covering semantic research at both word and sentence level. It presents a synoptic view of the most important areas of semantic investigation, including contemporary methodologies and debates, and indicating possible future directions in the field. Written by experts from around the world, the 29 chapters cover key issues and approaches within the following areas: meaning and conceptualisation; meaning and context; lexical semantics; semantics of specific phenomena; development, change and variation. The Routledge Handbook of Semantics is essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students working in this area.

English Studies from Archives to Prospects

English Studies from Archives to Prospects
Author: Irena Zovko Dinković
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2016-06-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1443895490

This volume explores English Studies from the perspective of linguistics and applied linguistics. By examining developments within their selected topics, the authors of these 18 chapters provide a broad overview of English Studies as related to their specific points of interest. Topics range from the well-established, such as negation, grammaticalization, and the role of culture in learning English, to those that are currently being revisited or are considered relatively new, such as corpus analysis, English as a lingua franca, and third language acquisition. The chapters reflect a modern approach to linguistic and applied linguistic phenomena, including diachronic and synchronic perspectives, as well as quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. English Studies as practiced at the English Department in Zagreb during the last 80 years, the anniversary of which instigated the invitation of contributions for this collection, are presented here as a vibrant field, characterized by dynamics and complexities that introduce novel ideas, and help us embrace emerging aspects of more established concepts.

Semantics - Sentence and Information Structure

Semantics - Sentence and Information Structure
Author: Paul Portner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 633
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110587319

Read this book to get a deeper understanding of a wide range of semantics research on complex sentences and meaning in discourse. These in-depth articles from leading names in their fields cover the core concepts of sentential semantics such as tense, modality, conditionality, propositional attitudes, scope, negation, and coordination. The highly cited material, covers questions, imperatives, copular clauses, and existential sentences. It also includes essential research on sentence types, and explains central concepts in the theory of information structure and discourse structure, such as topics, cohesion and coherence, accessibility and discourse particles.

Linguistic Evidence

Linguistic Evidence
Author: Stephan Kepser
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 590
Release: 2008-08-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110197545

The renaissance of corpus linguistics and promising developments in experimental linguistic techniques in recent years have led to a remarkable revival of interest in issues of the empirical base of linguistic theory in general, and the status of different kinds of linguistic evidence in particular. Consensus is growing (a) that even so-called primary data (from introspection as well as authentic language production) are inherently complex performance data only indirectly reflecting the subject of linguistic theory, (b) that for an appropriate foundation of linguistic theories evidence from different sources such as introspective data, corpus data, data from (psycho-)linguistic experiments, historical and diachronic data, typological data, neurolinguistic data and language learning data are not only welcome but also often necessary. It is in particular by contrasting evidence from different sources with respect to particular research questions that we may gain a deeper understanding of the status and quality of the individual types of linguistic evidence on the one hand, and of their mutual relationship and respective weight on the other. The present volume is a collection of (selected) papers presented at the conference on 'Linguistic Evidence' in Tübingen 2004, which was explicitly devoted to the above issues. All of them address these issues in relation to specific linguistic research problems, thereby helping to establish a better understanding of the nature of linguistic evidence in particularly insightful ways.