Open AccessMinimizer negative polarity items in non-negative contexts
Author(s) -
Manfred Sailer
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the international conference on head-driven phrase structure grammar
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1535-1793
DOI - 10.21248/hpsg.2021.19
Subject(s) - utterance , negation , lift (data mining) , computer science , meaning (existential) , natural language processing , representation (politics) , polarity (international relations) , scope (computer science) , linguistics , artificial intelligence , psychology , data mining , philosophy , genetics , politics , biology , political science , cell , law , psychotherapist , programming language
Minimizer strong NPIs such as ˋˋlift a finger'' are known to be more restricted in their occurrence than weak NPIs like ˋˋever''. Sedivy 1990 points to contexts with a ˋˋnegative side message'' in which ˋˋlift a finger'' can occur but ˋˋever'' cannot. The paper provides a short overview over the relevant contexts and proposes an extension of a representational theory of NPI licensing with the following components: First, an utterance content is introduced that enriches the primary truth-conditional content by conventional implicatures and generalized conversational implicatures. Second, ˋˋever''-type NPIs can be licensed by weak NPI licensors, but only in the primary truth-conditional meaning of an utterance. ˋˋLift-a-finger''-type NPIs can only be licensed in the scope of negation, but the licensing can be checked at the representation of the enriched meaning of an utterance.