Polarity-Sensitive Expressions: Comparisons Between Japanese and Other Languages

Open Access Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2024

Polarity-Sensitive Expressions

Comparisons Between Japanese and Other Languages

Edited by: Hideki Kishimoto , Osamu Sawada and Ikumi Imani

Volume 7 in the series The Mouton-NINJAL Library of Linguistics [MNLL]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110755121

Overview
Contents

About this book

Polarity (positive, negative) is one of the most fundamental concepts in the system of language and there are many expressions that are sensitive to polarity. For example, any in English and wh-mo in Japanese appear in negative contexts, but not in positive contexts. While previous studies have shown that polarity-sensitive expressions are a general phenomenon in languages, it has also become clear that there are variations in polarity-sensitive expressions. This volume explores the variations in polarity-sensitive expressions through comparisons between Japanese and other languages, such as English, German, Spanish, and Old Japanese, and examines the environments and contexts in which polarity-sensitive expressions occur, as well as the types of (cross-linguistic) variation allowed. The value of the present volume lies in its inclusion of research papers inquiring into various types of polarity-sensitive expressions, such as negative-, positive-, and discourse-sensitive polarity items as well as their variations. The research indicates new directions for the study of polarity-sensitive expressions in the fields of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics.

Author / Editor information

Hideki Kishimoto and Osamu Sawada, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan; and Ikumi Imani, Nagoya Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Series preface Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Introduction
Chapter 1 Empirical and theoretical issues of polarity-sensitive expressions Osamu Sawada, Hideki Kishimoto and Ikumi Imani Open Access Download PDF	1
Part I: Syntax of negative polarity items
Chapter 2 Negative polarity and clause structure in Japanese Hideki Kishimoto Open Access Download PDF	39
Chapter 3 Negation-sensitive elements outside the Neg-domain Kiyoko Kataoka Open Access Download PDF	83
Part II: Syntax/semantics of polarity-sensitive expressions
Chapter 4 Degree quantification, minimum quantity predicates, and polarity in Japanese Akira Watanabe Open Access Download PDF	117
Chapter 5 Polarity sensitivity of existential sentences with numerals in Japanese Ikumi Imani Open Access Download PDF	145
Chapter 6 Polarity sensitivity and equative markers in Japanese and German Eri Tanaka, Kenta Mizutani and Stephanie Solt Open Access Download PDF	165
Part III: Positive polarity items
Chapter 7 On the rescuing of positive polarity items in Japanese and English: A hybrid approach Yasushi Yoshimoto Open Access Download PDF	185
Chapter 8 Cross-linguistic variation in the scope of disjunction: Positive polarity, or anti-reconstruction? Takuya Goro Open Access Download PDF	225
Part IV: Discourse/pragmatic properties of polarity-sensitive items
Chapter 9 The forms and meanings of negative polar interrogatives in English and Japanese: Epistemic bias, information structure, prosody, and further issues David Y. Oshima Open Access Download PDF	261
Chapter 10 The polarity sensitivity of reactive intensifiers in Japanese and English Osamu Sawada Open Access Download PDF	297
Chapter 11 On propositional anaphora: ‘Referential’ propositions and propositional proforms Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten, Keir Moulton and Junko Shimoyama Open Access Download PDF	343
Chapter 12 Two types of attenuation strategies for polarity-sensitive items: The semantics of degree adverbs amari and sonnani in Japanese Misato Ido, Ai Kubota and Yusuke Kubota Open Access Download PDF	377
Part V: Historical study of polarity-sensitive items
Chapter 13 Scope ambiguity and the loss of NPI feature: Evidence from the history of Japanese scalar particle dani Tomohide Kinuhata Open Access Download PDF	415
Index Open Access Download PDF	453

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Scholars and students interested in morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, typology, and East Asian languages.
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 458
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 27
- Tables: 9
Keywords: Japanese; Polarity; Polarity-Sensitive Expressions; Cross-Linguistic Variation

eBook

Published: December 18, 2023
ISBN: 9783110755121

Hardcover

Published: December 18, 2023
ISBN: 9783110754995