• Language and Information
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.53-76
• /
• 2004

Negative polarity items(NPIs), which function as quantifiers are licensed in a syntactically strict way by negatives, which function as qualifiers, resulting in universal negating interpretations as pairs. We present a proposal to explain the related phenomena, in which the syntax and the semantics are closely related to each other, with Combinatory Categorial Grammar. For this purpose, we first adopt the usual approach to scrambling, but control its overgeneration with the use of markers, taking into account the complex syntactic phenomena involving NPIs and scrambling in Korean. We also propose to utilize polarity intensity as a novel feature, in order to account for the universal negating interpretations when NPIs are combined with negatives. Our proposal also explains the difference in readings when other quantifiers or qualifiers intervene the NPI and the related negatives.

• Language and Information
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.21-47
• /
• 2008

This paper reviews the analysis of the so-called Korean NPIs, amu-(N)-to and amu-(N)-rato, proposed by An (2007). An proposes that the two so-called polarity items are identical semantically, tantamount to English even, but they are in complementary distribution due to the opposite scope properties of the emphatic particles to and rato contained in the NPIs in question. Resorting to Karttunen and Peters' (1979) and Wilkinson's (1996) scope analysis of even, Lahiri's (1998) analysis of Hindi NPIs, and Guerzoni's (2002) analysis of the negative bias of yes/no-questions containing minimizers, An accounts for the distributional properties of the two Korean NPIs. Given this, however, it is observed that unlike amu-(N)-to, amu-(N)-rato could be licensed in much broader contexts. Based on this observation, this paper proposes that the two particles to and rato are two different particles with different meanings.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.459-474
• /
• 2009

The Journal of English Language and Literature. The purpose of this study is to provide an optimality theoretic approach to NPIs (Negative Polarity Items) in English and Korean by proposing three universal constraints. The constraints are C-command Condition (CCC): NPI must be c-commanded by a constituent with negative meaning; Locality Condition (LOC): NPI must be bound in the local domain; Subjacency: NPI licensing must satisfy Subjacency Condition (SBJ); Previous analyses have shown that these three constraints control NPIs in one way or another. This study attempts to demonstrate that NPIs in both English and Korean languages can be nicely accounted for by setting a different constraint hierarchy for the two independent languages. That is, by slightly changing the constraint hierarchy, distributional differences of NPIs in both languages can be accounted straightforwardly within the framework of Optimality Theory.

• Language and Information
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.47-57
• /
• 2009

It has been observed that not all negative polarity items (NPIs) are licensed in the same negative contexts, and different NPIs may be licensed by different negative expressions. This shows that Ladusaw's (1979) downward entailment is not precise enough to account for the distributional patterns of NPIs (van der Wouden, 1997; van der Wouden and Zwarts, 1993; Zwarts, 1986, among others). One well-known attempt to deal with this issue is to divide negative expressions into several subtypes. Using boolean semantics, Zwarts (1986; 1998) distinguishes three kinds of downward entailing licensors and accounts for heterogeneous NPI-licensing conditions by means of the semantic strength of negative expressions. This approach has been adopted to define Korean negation (Nam, 1994; Chung, 1993; Chung, 1997; Hwang, 2009). In this paper, however, we argue that the boolean semantic approach for negation is not adequate in characterizing the properties of Korean negative expressions and explaining the contexts of licensing Korean NPIs.

• Language and Information
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2010

On the Inherent (non-) Negativity of Negative Sensitive Items. This paper explores the idea that Korean Negative Sensitive Items, which are better viewed as Negative Concord Items (NCIs) (Kim 2001, 2006, Watanabe 2004), should not be construed as inherently negative in spite of the fact that NCIs are able to appear as an elided form without the presence of a negative licenser. Among several diagnostics, which are designed to draw syntactic and semantic distinctions between traditional Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) and NCIs employed in previous studies, the ability of an NCI to appear as a fragment answer raises the question of whether the negativity of NCIs is inherent or not. Contrary to Kim (2001, 2006) and Watanabe (2004), who are in favor of the inherent negativity of NCIs, I claim that non-negative Korean NCIs still need contentful negation to be licensed, and therefore their ability to appear as a fragment answer should be considered as a matter of ellipsis, in support of Giannakidou (2000, 2006). The main argument will be strengthened by the fact that Korean NCIs do not express negative meaning themselves, and that double negation readings are not allowed no matter how many NCIs occur simultaneously.

• Language and Information
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.1-20
• /
• 2006

This paper is concerned with the distribution and interpretation of yekan and its cognates. Syntactically they require negation, but semantically the sentences in which they occur are positive ones that make monotone increasing inferences possible. This syntax-semantics discrepancy can be best accounted for by showing that yekan and its cousins must be strictly c-commanded by metalinguistic negation at the surface structure and that the positive meaning of the sentences they are part of is derived from the cancellation of the pragmatic upper-bounding implicatum associated with them. These also enable us to explain why they do not occur in the environments where typical NPIs do and why only certain forms of negation license them.

• Language and Information
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.127-153
• /
• 2015

Negative expressions have their semantic function of classical negation as a pure reverser of truth-values. They also have various kin and foes of their pragmatic functions such as association of bad feelings (Russell 1948), emphasis/attenuation by negative polarity items, sarcasm, and metalinguistic negation (MN). This paper explores how MN and descriptive negation (DN) differ and whether the difference creates pragmatic ambiguity (Horn 1987) or reflects merely contextual variations of one logical negation (Carston 1996). To test the debate, this paper treats certain degree modifiers licensed exclusively by MN as in Mia-ka POTHONG/Yekan yeppu-n key an-i-a [external neg] (vs. modifier NPIs like cenhye 'at all', licensed only by DN) and contrasts them with bad utterances of the MN modifiers in [short form neg] sentences (not for MN) such as Mia-ka POTHONG an yeppu-e. The ERP results of the well-formed vs. ill-formed conditions evoked the N400 at Cz in written stimuli and the N400 near the center on both hemispheres in spoken stimuli. The results suggest that the anomalies are meaning-related and tend to support the pragmatic ambiguity.