Natural Language Semantics 12 (4):319-343 (2004)
| Abstract |
It has been a long-standing puzzle that Negative Polarity Items appear to split into two subvarieties when their effect on the interpretation of questions is taken into account: while questions with any and ever can be used as unbiased requests of information, questions with so-called `minimizers', i.e. idioms like lift a finger and the faintest idea, are always biased towards a negative answer (cf. Ladusaw 1979). Focusing on yes/no questions, this paper presents a solution to this puzzle. Specifically it is shown that in virtue of containing even (cf. Heim 1984), minimizers, unlike any, trigger a presupposition, which reduces the set of the possible answers to a question to the singleton containing the negative answer
|
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) |
| Categories | (categorize this paper) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11050-004-8739-0 |
| Options |
Mark as duplicate
Export citation
Request removal from index
|
Download options
PhilArchive copy
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy Papers currently archived: 58,348
External links
- From the Publisher via CrossRef (no proxy)
- link.springer.com (no proxy)
- link.springer.com [2] (no proxy)
- mendeley.com
(no proxy)
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server
Configure custom proxy (use this if your affiliation does not provide a proxy)
Through your library
- Sign in / register and customize your OpenURL resolver..
- Configure custom resolver
References found in this work BETA
Focus: 271-297.M. Rooth - 1996 - In Shalom Lappin (ed.), The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory. Blackwell Reference. pp. 271-297.
For a Structured Meaning Account of Questions and Answers.Manfred Krifka - 2001 - In Audiatur Vox Sapientia. A Festschrift for Arnim von Stechow. Academie Verlag. pp. 287-320.
View all 8 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
The Grammatical View of Scalar Implicatures and the Relationship Between Semantics and Pragmatics.Gennaro Chierchia & Danny Fox - unknown
The Universal Density of Measurement.Danny Fox & Martin Hackl - 2006 - Linguistics and Philosophy 29 (5):537 - 586.
A Question of Strength: On NPIs in Interrogative Clauses. [REVIEW]Yael Sharvit - 2007 - Linguistics and Philosophy 30 (3):361 - 391.
View all 17 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Negative Polarity Items in Questions: Strength as Relevance.R. van Rooy - 2003 - Journal of Semantics 20 (3):239-273.
A Question of Strength: On NPIs in Interrogative Clauses. [REVIEW]Yael Sharvit - 2007 - Linguistics and Philosophy 30 (3):361 - 391.
Intervention Effects on NPIs and Feature Movement: Towards a Unified Account of Intervention. [REVIEW]Elena Guerzoni - 2006 - Natural Language Semantics 14 (4):359-398.
There is No Number Effect in the Licensing of Negative Polarity Items: A Reply to Guerzoni and Sharvit. [REVIEW]Jack Hoeksema - 2008 - Linguistics and Philosophy 31 (4):397-407.
Negative and Positive Polarity Items: Variation, Licensing, and Compositionality.Anastasia Giannakidou - manuscript
Negative Polarity in German: Some Experimental Results.F. Richter & J. Rado - 2013 - Journal of Semantics (1):ffs023.
Japanese Indeterminate Negative Polarity Items and Their Scope.J. Shimoyama - 2011 - Journal of Semantics 28 (4):413-450.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2013-12-01
Total views
49 ( #207,123 of 2,420,317 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #542,912 of 2,420,317 )
2013-12-01
Total views
49 ( #207,123 of 2,420,317 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #542,912 of 2,420,317 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads
