Polarity Sensitivity as (Non)Veridical Dependency

298 Pages·1998·11.86 MB·English

by  Anastasia Giannakidou

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LINGUISTIK AKTUELL
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Volume 23
Anastasia Giannakidou
Polarity Sensitivity as (Non) Veridical Dependency
POLARITY
SENSITIVITY AS
(NON)VERIDICAL
DEPENDENCY
ANASTASIA GIANNAKIDOU
University of Amsterdam
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM / PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Giannakidou, Anastasia.
Polarity sensitivity as (non) veridical dependency / Anastasia Giannakidou.
p. cm. -- (Linguistik aktuell / Linguistics today, ISSN 0166-0829; v. 23)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Grammar, Comparative and general-Syntax. 2. Semantics. 3. Dependency grammar. 4.
Greek language, Modern-Syntax. 5. Greek language, Modern-Semantics. I. Title. II. Series:
Linguistik aktuell ; Bd. 23.
P291.G48 1998
415-dc21 98-39786
ISBN 90 272 2744 6 (EUR) / 1 55619 907 4 (us) (Hb; alk. paper) CIP
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Preface
This book presents the theory of polarity sensitivity I have been developing in a
number of publications (1994, 1995, 1996) culminating in my dissertation "The
Landscape of Polarity Items", defended at the University of Groningen in Janu­
ary 1997. Although the organization of the material has remained faithful to the
structure of the dissertation, some substantial modifications have been made in
order to make the argument about (non)veridicality more clear.
Most importantly, the orientation in this book has changed. In the dis­
sertation, I emphasized the issue of diversity: the aim was to show that what the
previous literature lumped together under the label "polarity sensitivity" consists
in fact of various subphenomena which are not identical, and which should thus
be studied and understood on their own terms. In the present study, I take this
result for granted; the goal now is to determine what the various manifestations
of polarity have in common. I will argue that the common core in all polarity
phenomena is sensitivity to (non)veridicality. Sensitivities to negation or down­
ward entailment emerge as subcases thereof.
Another change concerns the issue of sensitivity. In the dissertation, I
criticized previous theories of polarity as neglecting the relation between polarity
items and licensing (or anti-licensing) property, but I didn't deal with the issue
myself. In this book, the sensitivity issue is taken seriously: limited distribution
is linked to the lexical semantics of polarity items and is shown to follow directly
from their sensitivity specifications.
Finally, considerable modifications have been made as regards the syn­
tactic mapping of polarity dependencies, more specifically, the analysis of nega­
tive licensing and negative concord in chapter 4. The important conclusion there
will be that licensing, an instance of semantic dependency, does not necessarily
correspond to a syntactic be-in-the-scope-of-licenser requirement. In some cases,
for instance for the interpretation of negative concord, it is required that the licen­
see escape the scope of the licenser.
Viii
These three major changes are visible in the addition of new material in
chapters 2 and 3, and the re-analysis of the original data reported in my disserta­
tion in chapter 4.
I wish to thank a number of people for helping me write this book. First
of all, I owe a lot to Frans Zwarts. I would like to thank Frans not only for his
linguistic aid, but also for his continuous support and help in dealing with eve­
rything. I do sincerely hope that he likes this book. Many thanks also to mem­
bers of my former thesis committee: Donka Farkas, Jack Hoeksema and Bill
Ladusaw. They always made me feel that I can rely on them.
I am grateful to my colleagues at the Philosophy Department of the Uni­
versity of Amsterdam for providing me with the ideal environment to work in,
intellectually and personally. My thinking has been influenced greatly from dis­
cussions with them. For comments and suggestions, I would like to thank espe­
cially Jeroen Groenendijk, also for making me feel comfortable right from the
beginning, Herman Hendriks, also for his practical help, and Renate Bartsch,
Paul Dekker, Jelle Gerbrandy, Rob van Rooy, and Martin Stokhof.
For their (extensive) written comments, and for very helpful discussion,
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer of Linguistik Aktuell, Paolo
Acquaviva, Adam Przepiórkowski, and especially Jason Merchant. I really
appreciate the time and energy they put into reading and understanding various
versions of this manuscript. I did my best to incorporate most of their comments
and criticisms. I am also grateful to Josep Quer for discussion and suggestions,
and his ever-lasting confidence in the (non)veridicality hypothesis. For com­
ments and discussion also many thanks to Chris Albert, Werner Abraham, Cleo
Condoravdi, Veneeta Dayal, Marcel den Dikken, Liliane Haegeman, Larry Horn,
Jacques Jayez, Manfred Sailer, Remko Scha, Lucia Tovena, Jannis Veloudis,
Ton van der Wouden, and Henk Zeevat. Many thanks also to Arnim von
Stechow and Wolfgang Sternefeld: it was my visit to Tübingen that geared the
shift in the analysis of negative concord in chapter 4.
Many thanks to my informants: Josep Quer (Catalan), Jeroen Gro­
enendijk, Jack Hoeksema, Frans Zwarts, and Martin Stokhof (Dutch), Jason
Merchant and Larry Horn (English), Maria Aloni, Carlo Cecchetto and Paola
Monachesi (Italian), Adam Przepiórkowski (Polish), Ljiljana Progovac
(Serbian/Croatian). I am also indebted to Artemis Alexiadou, Elena Anag-
nostopoulou, Sabine Iatridou, Dimitra Kolliakou, Nana Sioupi, and Melita
Stavrou for discussions of the Greek data, and for assistance in practical matters.
Finally, I would like to thank Yasuhiko Kato and Akiko Yoshimura for sending
me their material on Japanese. Unfortunately, it was too late to consider the
Japanese facts in this book.
I
І would like to thank the editor of the series, Werner Abraham, for his
encouragement and support, and Kees Vaes for his editorial assistance.
My friends, I won't acknowldedge this time. They know who they are
and how indispensable they have been in my life. For their love and sacrifices,
and for everything they have done for me through the years, I wish to thank my
parents Κυριακή και Δημήτριο. I know things went well for me because they
were always on my side. Many thanks also to my sister, Θεοδώρα, especially
because she gave us my little niece, still μπεμπίτσα, who offered me those baby
smiles of hers whenever I turned my head from the computer screen to the pho­
tographs next to me. Little did she know that she would end up as an acknowl­
edgment in a linguistics book!
Finally, I would like to give my deepest thanks to Jason, for all the rea­
sons he knows. It is to him that I dedicate this book.
Amsterdam, July 6th, 1998