scholarly journals Comparing theories of quantifiers in than clauses: Lessons from downward-entailing differentials

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Fleisher
Keyword(s):  
Downward Entailing

scholarly journals The Interpretation of Disjunction in the Scope of Dou in Child Mandarin

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shasha An ◽  
Peng Zhou ◽  
Stephen Crain
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Downward Entailing ◽  
The Right

A recent theory provides a unified cross-linguistic analysis of the interpretations that are assigned to expressions for disjunction, Negative Polarity Items, Free Choice Items, and the non-interrogative uses of wh-phrases in languages such as Mandarin Chinese. If this approach is on the right track, children should be expected to demonstrate similar patterns in the acquisition of these linguistic expressions. Previous research has found that, by age four, children have acquired the knowledge that both the existential indefinite renhe “any” and wh-words in Mandarin Chinese are interpreted as Negative Polarity Items when they are bound by downward entailing operators, but the same expressions are interpreted as Free Choice Items (with a conjunctive interpretation) when they are bound by deontic modals (Mandarin keyi) or by the Mandarin adverbial quantifier dou “all”. The present study extends this line of research to the Mandarin disjunction word huozhe. A Truth Value Judgment Task was used to investigate the possibility that disjunction phrases that are bound by the adverbial quantifier dou generate a conjunctive interpretation in the grammars of Mandarin-speaking 4-year-old children. The findings confirmed this prediction. We discuss the implications of the findings for linguistic theory and for language learnability.

scholarly journals Another argument for embedded scalar implicatures based on oddness in downward entailing contexts

2015 ◽  
pp. 564
Author(s):  
Giorgio Magri
Keyword(s):  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Downward Entailing ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right

In Magri (2009), I argue that a sentence such as 'Some Italians come from a warm country' sounds odd because it triggers the scalar implicature that not all Italians come from a warm country, which mismatches with the common knowledge that all Italians come from the same country. If this proposal is on the right track, then oddness can be used as a diagnostic for scalar implicatures. In this paper, I use this diagnostic to provide one more argument that scalar implicatures are computed not only at the matrix level but also in embedded position. The argument is based on a puzzling pattern of oddness in downward entailing contexts.

scholarly journals Plurality inferences are scalar implicatures: Evidence from acquisition

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Tieu ◽  
Cory Bill ◽  
Jacopo Romoli ◽  
Stephen Crain
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Title Page ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
Downward Entailing ◽  
Truth Value

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>This paper provides novel experimental evidence for a scalar implicature approach to the plurality inferences that are associated with English plural morphology (</span><span>Emily fed giraffes </span><span>-&gt; </span><span>Emily fed more than one giraffe</span><span>). Using a Truth Value Judgment Task, we show that both adults and 4–5-year-old children compute more plurality inferences in upward-entailing than downward-entailing environments, but children compute fewer plurality inferences overall than adults do. These findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating children’s relative insensitivity to scalar implicatures. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of plurality inferences, and for the acquisition of scalar inferences more generally. </span></p></div></div></div>

scholarly journals Alternating conj/disjunctions: the case of Japanese "-toka" and "-tari"

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 393-406
Author(s):  
Ryan Walter Smith ◽  
Ryoichiro Kobayashi
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Semantics ◽  
Downward Entailing

This paper investigates the interpretation of Japanese -toka and -tari, two nonexhaustiveparticles that receive conjunctive interpretations in upward-entailingenvironments, but disjunctive interpretations in downward-entailing and question contexts.We analyze -toka and -tari as items that introduce unstructured sets of alternatives in aHamblin-style alternative semantics (Hamblin, 1973; Kratzer and Shimoyama, 2002), andderive their conjunctive and disjunctive readings via an interaction between these sets and thesemantics of the environment containing them.Keywords: -toka, -tari, Japanese, alternative semantics, conjunction, disjunction

On the syntax of the can’t seem construction in English

2020 ◽  
pp. 188-221
Author(s):  
Hilda Koopman
Keyword(s):  
Landing Site ◽  
Downward Entailing ◽  
Verb Clusters

/The properties of the English can’t seem construction call for a syntactic resolution of the syntax-semantics mismatch it exhibits. This chapter shows the can’t seem order must be derived from a [seem to [ . . . not can VP ] ] structure. Insights into the derivation come from verb clusters in Germanic OV languages, with complex verb formation and clustering verbs like can and seem playing a central role. Together with infinitival to, dative to, and downward entailing elements, these are instrumental in creating remnant constituents, triggering pied-piping and smuggling a remnant constituent up into the structure, until each element can reach its final landing site. Restrictions fall out from the particular sequence of merge which must hold for convergence, and from the role each element must play. The English derivation in turn sheds light on a potential syntactic resolution of a syntax-phonology mismatch with “displaced” zu in German verbal clusters.

Negation and the Brain

2020 ◽  
pp. 693-712
Author(s):  
Yosef Grodzinsky ◽  
Virginia Jaichenco ◽  
Isabelle Deschamps ◽  
María Elina Sánchez ◽  
Martín Fuchs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Problem ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Behavioral Experiments ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Processing Cost ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Downward Entailing ◽  
Measuring Reaction Time ◽  
The Brain

This chapter reports an investigation into possible brain bases for negation. It begins with a review of negation experiments that used behavioral studies (measuring Reaction Time—RT), and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiments that sought to identify local activations that correlate with the presence of negation. The chapter dwells on a major methodological problem that permeates the experimental study of negation processing, and proposes a solution: instead of overt negation, we study expressions that contain a covert negation—expressions that are Downward Entailing (DE) as evinced by their ability to reverse inferences and license NPIs in their scope. DE operators are thus taken to contain a hidden, or covert, negation, and contrast with the Upward Entailing counterparts (few vs. many; less vs. more). The chapter reviews behavioral experiments in healthy adults that indicate that DE has a processing cost, and an fMRI study that finds a single brain location for this computation. These results serve as a basis for an experiment on individuals with Broca’s aphasia. Tests with DE and UE quantifiers with these patients resulted in a mixed picture, which is discussed and its implications are derived.

scholarly journals When are Downward-Entailing Contexts Identified? The Case of the Domain Widener Ever

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 681-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Clifton ◽  
Lyn Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Downward Entailing

scholarly journals Focus particles, secondary meanings, and Lexical Resource Semantics: The case of Japanese shika

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akio Hasegawa ◽  
Jean-Pierre Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
Focus Particles ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Lexical Resource ◽  
Logical Negation ◽  
Secondary Meaning ◽  
Downward Entailing ◽  
Resource Semantics ◽  
Semantic Properties

Japanese has two exclusive particles ˋshika' and ˋdake'. Although traditionally, both particles were considered to be exclusive particles like ˋonly', a recent proposal claims that ˋshika' is an exceptive particle like ˋeveryone except' to account for the necessary co-occurrence of the negative suffix ˋna' and ˋshika'. We show that this negative suffix lacks two critical semantic properties of ordinary logical negation: It is not downward entailing, nor does it license negative polarity items. We show that both ˋshika' and ˋdake' are exclusive particles, but that ˋshika' encodes an additional secondary meaning. The negative suffix only contributes to the sentence's secondary meaning when it co-occurs with ˋshika'. We present an HPSG and LRS analysis that models the co-occurrence of ˋshika' and the negative suffix ˋna', and their contribution to the sentence's secondary meaning.

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