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Definite and Nondefinite Superlatives and NPI Licensing
Author(s) -
Herdan Simona,
Sharvit Yael
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
syntax
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9612
pISSN - 1368-0005
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9612.2006.00082.x
Subject(s) - superlative , determiner , morpheme , linguistics , singleton , noun , noun phrase , semantic property , semantics (computer science) , property (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , definiteness , computer science , mathematics , philosophy , epistemology , pregnancy , biology , genetics , programming language
. We observe that superlative noun phrases are often not definite and may be headed by an indefinite determiner and other determiners. We attribute this fact to the semantics of the superlative morpheme which creates a (not necessarily singleton) set of individuals. A welcome prediction made by this proposal is that negative polarity items (NPIs) are licensed in the postnominal position only when the determiner that precedes the superlative morpheme is definite, because only then does the superlative morpheme have the semantic property required for NPI licensing—namely, Strawson Downward Entailingness. We explore some semantic and syntactic consequences of the proposal.