French Polarity-Marking Strategies

@cite{holmberg-2016}

French marks polarity reversal (contradiction of a negative assertion or question) with the dedicated particle si. Like German doch and Swedish jo, si assigns [+Pol] while presupposing a negative context.

Unlike Dutch wel, si is not sentence-internal: it appears clause- initially or as a standalone response.

Examples

• "Tu ne viens pas?" (You're not coming?) → "Si (, je viens)." (Yes I am.)

• "Il ne pleut pas." (It's not raining.) → "Si (, il pleut.)" (Yes it is.)

Si cannot be used without a negative context:

• "Tu viens?" (Are you coming?) → *"Si" (infelicitous — no negation to reverse; use oui)

Cross-linguistic class

@cite{holmberg-2016}: si, jo, doch form a natural class of polarity-reversing particles — they assign [+Pol] in contexts where a negative polarity is salient. This class is distinct from plain affirmative particles like Dutch wel and from Verum focus.

@[reducible, inline]

abbrev Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.si : Typology.PolarityMarking.Entry

si — French polarity-reversing affirmative particle. Assigns [+Pol] while contradicting a negative assertion or question. Clause-initial or standalone; not sentence-internal. Correction-only: requires a negative context to reverse.

Equations

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

def Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.allPolarityMarkings : List Typology.PolarityMarking.Entry

Equations

• Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.allPolarityMarkings = [Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.si]

theorem Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.si_form : si.form = some "si"

theorem Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.si_not_sentenceInternal : Typology.PolarityMarking.Env.sentenceInternal ∉ si.environments

theorem Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.si_not_contrastOk : Typology.PolarityMarking.Env.contrast ∉ si.environments

theorem Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.si_correctionOk : Typology.PolarityMarking.Env.correction ∈ si.environments

theorem Fragments.French.PolarityMarking.si_strategy : si.strategy = Typology.PolarityMarking.Strategy.polarityReversal