Open AccessNegative Polarity Items in Telugu
Author(s) -
Mayuri J. Dilip,
Rajesh Kumar
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
acta linguistica asiatica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 2
ISSN - 2232-3317
DOI - 10.4312/ala.9.1.9-28
Subject(s) - negation , polarity (international relations) , context (archaeology) , telugu , realization (probability) , mathematics , computer science , linguistics , natural language processing , statistics , philosophy , paleontology , genetics , cell , biology
The paper presents a unified account of licensing conditions of Negative Polarity Items (NPI) in Telugu. Based on the distribution of NPIs in complex clauses, we state that negation c-commanding NPI at the base-generated. Consequently, features checking between negation and NPI restricts the alternatives on the scale inherent to NPIs. The morphological realization of NPI in the non-negative contexts is different from the context with overt negation. The NPIs show the following distribution. NPI occurs in subject position; A negative licensing Multiple NPIs. There are three types of NPIs: wh-element, quantifier and idiomatic expression. In complex clauses, wh-elements block long-distance licensing. In contrast, quantifiers and idiomatic expressions do not block long-distance licensing.