English polarity items

This file defines the English polarity-sensitive items as PolarityItem entries. The weak negative polarity items any, ever, yet, anymore, at all, in the least, a single and whatsoever are licensed by any downward-entailing operator; the strong ones, lift a finger, budge an inch, in years, until and additive either, need an anti-additive licenser, and Gajewski shows that either is out under only although only is Strawson downward-entailing. Any and the free relatives whatever, whoever and whichever have free choice readings. The positive polarity items divide, in Israel's terms, into the attenuating some, somewhat and rather and the emphatic tons of and utterly, beside already and additive too, the positive counterpart of either; the idioms wild horses, all the tea in China, a ten-foot pole and in a million years are his maximizer negative polarity items and at the drop of a hat, in a jiffy, for a pittance and for a song his minimizer positive ones. Each entry carries its licenser strength, its attested licensing contexts and its scalar direction; Israel's classification by quantity and propositional role is the matter of Studies/Israel2001.lean.

Main definitions

• English.PolarityItems.weakNPIs, English.PolarityItems.strongNPIs, English.PolarityItems.invertedNPIs, English.PolarityItems.allFCIs, English.PolarityItems.canonicalPPIs, English.PolarityItems.invertedPPIs: the classes.
• English.PolarityItems.allPolarityItems: the lexicon.

Main results

• English.PolarityItems.english_licensing_sound: every attested context of every entry is predicted to license it.

References

• [israel-2011]
• [gajewski-2011]
• [chierchia-2006]
• [rullmann-2003]
• [ladd-1981]

Weak NPIs

def English.PolarityItems.any : PolarityItem

any, the prototypical dual NPI/FCI, with domain alternatives ([chierchia-2006]).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.ever : PolarityItem

ever, temporal NPI with domain alternatives ([chierchia-2006]).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.yet : PolarityItem

yet, temporal NPI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.anymore : PolarityItem

anymore, temporal NPI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.atAll : PolarityItem

at all, degree NPI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.inTheLeast : PolarityItem

in the least, degree NPI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.aSingle : PolarityItem

a single, emphatic existential NPI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.whatsoever : PolarityItem

whatsoever, emphatic post-nominal NPI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Strong NPIs

def English.PolarityItems.liftAFinger : PolarityItem

lift a finger, idiomatic minimizer, anti-additive licensor.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.budgeAnInch : PolarityItem

budge an inch, idiomatic minimizer, anti-additive licensor.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.inYears : PolarityItem

in years, temporal strong NPI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.until_ : PolarityItem

until, temporal strong NPI (in some analyses).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.either_npi : PolarityItem

either, additive strong NPI ([rullmann-2003], [gajewski-2011]): ungrammatical under Strawson-DE operators (Only John likes pancakes, either) despite [von-fintel-1999] having shown those contexts Strawson-DE ([gajewski-2011] p. 120).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Free choice items

def English.PolarityItems.whatever : PolarityItem

whatever, free-relative FCI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.whoever : PolarityItem

whoever, free-relative FCI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.whichever : PolarityItem

whichever, free-relative FCI.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Positive polarity items

def English.PolarityItems.some_ppi : PolarityItem

some (stressed), PPI reading; attenuating (weaker than many/all).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.already : PolarityItem

already, temporal PPI.

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.already = { form := "already", baseForce := PolarityItem.BaseForce.temporal, ppi := true, licensingContexts := [] }

def English.PolarityItems.too : PolarityItem

too, additive PPI, the positive counterpart of either ([ladd-1981]).

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.too = { form := "too", baseForce := PolarityItem.BaseForce.additive, ppi := true, licensingContexts := [] }

def English.PolarityItems.somewhat : PolarityItem

somewhat, degree PPI; attenuating (weaker than very).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.rather : PolarityItem

rather, degree PPI; attenuating (weaker than very).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.tonsOf : PolarityItem

tons of, emphatic PPI, as in She has tons of friends.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.utterly : PolarityItem

utterly, emphatic PPI, as in I was utterly depressed.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Maximizer NPIs

def English.PolarityItems.wildHorses : PolarityItem

wild horses, idiomatic maximizer NPI, as in Wild horses couldn't keep me away.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.allTheTeaInChina : PolarityItem

all the tea in China, idiomatic maximizer NPI, as in I wouldn't do it for all the tea in China.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.aTenFootPole : PolarityItem

a ten-foot pole, idiomatic maximizer NPI, as in I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.inAMillionYears : PolarityItem

in a million years, idiomatic maximizer NPI, as in I wouldn't marry that woman in a million years.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Minimizer PPIs

def English.PolarityItems.atTheDropOfAHat : PolarityItem

at the drop of a hat, idiomatic minimizer PPI, as in He'd quit at the drop of a hat.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.inAJiffy : PolarityItem

in a jiffy, idiomatic minimizer PPI, as in We'll be back in a jiffy.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.forAPittance : PolarityItem

for a pittance, idiomatic minimizer PPI, as in He got Madonna to play for peanuts.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.forASong : PolarityItem

for a song, idiomatic minimizer PPI, as in He bought that painting for a song.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Lexicon access

def English.PolarityItems.weakNPIs : List PolarityItem

The weak NPIs.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.strongNPIs : List PolarityItem

The strong NPIs.

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.strongNPIs = [English.PolarityItems.liftAFinger, English.PolarityItems.budgeAnInch, English.PolarityItems.inYears, English.PolarityItems.until_]

def English.PolarityItems.invertedNPIs : List PolarityItem

The maximizer NPIs.

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.invertedNPIs = [English.PolarityItems.wildHorses, English.PolarityItems.allTheTeaInChina, English.PolarityItems.aTenFootPole, English.PolarityItems.inAMillionYears]

def English.PolarityItems.allNPIs : List PolarityItem

All NPIs (weak + strong + maximizer).

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.allNPIs = English.PolarityItems.weakNPIs ++ English.PolarityItems.strongNPIs ++ English.PolarityItems.invertedNPIs

def English.PolarityItems.allFCIs : List PolarityItem

The FCIs.

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.allFCIs = [English.PolarityItems.any, English.PolarityItems.whatever, English.PolarityItems.whoever, English.PolarityItems.whichever]

def English.PolarityItems.canonicalPPIs : List PolarityItem

The plain PPIs.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def English.PolarityItems.invertedPPIs : List PolarityItem

The minimizer PPIs.

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.invertedPPIs = [English.PolarityItems.atTheDropOfAHat, English.PolarityItems.inAJiffy, English.PolarityItems.forAPittance, English.PolarityItems.forASong]

def English.PolarityItems.allPPIs : List PolarityItem

All PPIs.

Equations

• English.PolarityItems.allPPIs = English.PolarityItems.canonicalPPIs ++ English.PolarityItems.invertedPPIs

def English.PolarityItems.allPolarityItems : List PolarityItem

The full lexicon.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Verification

theorem English.PolarityItems.english_licensing_sound (e : PolarityItem) : e ∈ allPolarityItems → ∀ c ∈ e.licensingContexts, c.licenses e

Every attested context of every entry is predicted licensed.