Italian polarity items #

Italian gives the negative polarity and free choice uses that English any combines to separate items (Chierchia). The n-words nessuno 'no one', niente 'nothing' and neanche 'not even' take part in negative concord: after the verb they need non or another n-word before it, Non ho detto niente a nessuno 'I haven't said anything to anybody', while before the verb they are negative on their own, Nessuno ha telefonato 'Nobody called' (Chierchia; Maiden and Robustelli). Chierchia likens them to strong NPIs, restricted to roughly the anti-additive environments, and nessuno is not licensed in the restriction of ogni 'every'; but nessuno and niente also follow senza 'without' and colloquially mean 'anybody', 'anything' in questions (Maiden and Robustelli). Mai 'never' takes the same two positions, and after the verb it is the weak NPI 'ever' of questions, superlatives and comparatives; the high-register alcuno 'any' is a weak NPI without free choice uses. Qualsiasi and its variant qualunque head two free choice constructions, [qualsiasi N], read universally, and [un N qualsiasi], read existentially, neither of them an NPI (Chierchia). Pur con 'even with' needs its clause negated, and affatto 'at all' is an NPI as well (Napoli and Nespor), nowadays used only in negative sentences (Maiden and Robustelli).

Implementation notes #

Nessuno, niente and mai carry the weak licensor, as the negative words of Spanish and French do: Maiden and Robustelli attest them in questions, which license only weak items. Neanche, attested only with a negation, carries the anti-additive licensor that Chierchia gives n-words.

References #

TODO #

The licensing theory gives the restriction of a universal anti-additive strength, so it admits nessuno there, against [Chi06]; the judgment belongs with a Chierchia 2006 example row.

N-words #

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def Italian.PolarityItems.nessuno :

PolarityItem

nessuno 'no one' is the n-word built on uno 'one', as in Gianni non ha telefonato a nessuno 'Gianni didn't call anybody', Nessuno ha telefonato 'Nobody called', and with a second negation the double negation reading Nessuno non ha protestato 'everybody protested'. It follows senza, senza incontrare nessuno 'without meeting anyone', and colloquially means 'anybody' in a question, C'è nessuno lì dentro? 'Is there anybody in there?'.

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def Italian.PolarityItems.niente :

PolarityItem

niente, or nulla, 'nothing', as in Non ho detto niente a nessuno 'I haven't said anything to anybody', senza niente che mi aiutasse 'without anything to help me', and colloquially Hai dimenticato niente? 'Have you forgotten anything?'.

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def Italian.PolarityItems.neanche :

PolarityItem

neanche 'not even' has the variants nemmeno and neppure, as in Non si comporta bene neanche a scuola 'He doesn't behave well even at school', Neanche a scuola si comporta bene 'Not even at school does he behave well'.

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Weak NPIs #

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def Italian.PolarityItems.mai :

PolarityItem

mai 'never, ever' is a weak NPI without free choice uses, as in Non l'ho mai visto senza cappello 'I've never seen him hatless', Nessuno è mai arrivato puntuale 'Nobody has ever arrived on time', Hai mai letto I promessi sposi? 'Have you ever read The Betrothed?', l'uomo più dolce e più grande che abbia mai incontrato 'the sweetest and greatest man I have ever encountered', Piove più che mai 'It rains more than ever'.

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def Italian.PolarityItems.alcuno :

PolarityItem

alcuno 'any' is a weak NPI of formal and bureaucratic styles without free choice uses, as in Non ho comprato alcun libro 'I didn't buy any book', senza aver visto alcuno 'without having seen anyone', Dubito che Gianni abbia comprato alcun libro 'I doubt that Gianni bought any book', Se Gianni avesse comprato alcun libro, ce lo avrebbe detto 'If Gianni had bought any book, he would have told us', against *Ho comprato alcun libro. The plural alcuni 'some' is a plain indefinite.

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def Italian.PolarityItems.pur :

PolarityItem

pur con 'even with', as in pur con tutta la fantasia del mondo 'even with all the fantasy in the world', which needs the verb of its clause negated, giving Non puoi immaginarlo, pur con tutta la fantasia del mondo against *Puoi immaginarlo, …. Elsewhere pure 'also, even' is not polarity sensitive, Si è pure offerta di allevare lei il bastardo 'She even offered to bring the bastard up herself'.

Equations

Italian.PolarityItems.pur = { form := "pur con", licensor := some PolarityItem.DEStrength.weak, licensingContexts := [PolarityItem.LicensingContext.negation] }

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def Italian.PolarityItems.affatto :

PolarityItem

affatto 'at all', now used only in negative sentences, Non sono affatto sparito 'I haven't disappeared at all'; its non-negative use 'quite', Affatto bello gli sembrò lo spettacolo 'The show seemed quite beautiful to him', is very formal and literary.

Equations

Italian.PolarityItems.affatto = { form := "affatto", licensor := some PolarityItem.DEStrength.weak, licensingContexts := [PolarityItem.LicensingContext.negation] }

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Free choice items #

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def Italian.PolarityItems.qualsiasi :

PolarityItem

qualsiasi, or qualunque, before the noun is the universal free choice item, as in Prendi qualunque dolce 'take any sweet', Mangia qualsiasi schifezza 'He eats any old junk'. Episodically it needs a modifier, Ieri ho parlato con qualsiasi filosofo che fosse interessato a parlarmi against ??Ieri ho parlato con qualsiasi filosofo, and under negation an unmodified one has only the rhetorical 'not just any' reading, Non leggerò qualunque libro.

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def Italian.PolarityItems.unoQualsiasi :

PolarityItem

un N qualsiasi, or qualunque, is the existential free choice item, as in Prendi un dolce qualunque 'take a sweet whatever', Pensa a un numero qualsiasi 'Think of any number'. It is marginal in a plain episodic sentence, ??Ieri ho parlato con un qualsiasi filosofo, and under negation it has only the rhetorical reading, Io non sono un agricoltore qualunque 'I'm not just any old farmer'.

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