Qing, Özyıldız, Roelofsen, Romero & Uegaki 2025: question-taking preferentials

[QOR+25] classify non-veridical preferential predicates by two factors — clausal distributivity and evaluative valence — and show that only the distributive positive class (hope-type) is anti-rogative: non-distributive predicates (worry, Mandarin qidai, Japanese tanosimi) and distributive negative ones (fear, Japanese osore, Turkish kork-) take questions canonically, because the [US19] triviality needs both distributivity and the positive-valence Threshold Significance Presupposition (Studies/UegakiSudo2019.lean). PredicateClass and classify render the classification (their Table 1); the observations record the paper's cross-linguistic acceptability judgments over English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Turkish. Apparent hope + question cases are analyzed as non-canonical adjunction-style composition (their §4), with the highlighting analysis considered and dispreferred.

The classification (Table 1)

inductive QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass : Type

The three classes of non-veridical preferential predicates: the two distributivity-by-valence cells that take questions, and the anti-rogative distributive positive class.

• nonDistributive : PredicateClass

  Non-distributive (worry, qidai, tanosimi): the question semantics outruns the existential over answers.

• distributiveNegative : PredicateClass

  Distributive with negative valence (fear, osore, kork-): no Threshold Significance Presupposition.

• distributivePositive : PredicateClass

  Distributive with positive valence (hope, wish, expect): anti-rogative via the [US19] triviality.

@[instance_reducible]

instance QingEtAl2025.instDecidableEqPredicateClass : DecidableEq PredicateClass

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.instDecidableEqPredicateClass x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

@[instance_reducible]

instance QingEtAl2025.instReprPredicateClass : Repr PredicateClass

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.instReprPredicateClass = { reprPrec := QingEtAl2025.instReprPredicateClass.repr }

def QingEtAl2025.instReprPredicateClass.repr : PredicateClass → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

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

def QingEtAl2025.classify (distributive : Bool) (valence : Features.AttitudeValence) : PredicateClass

The class determined by the two factors. Distributivity facts for the substrate's predicates are Preferential.mkDegreeComparison_isDistributive and Preferential.worry_not_distributive.

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.classify false valence = QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass.nonDistributive
• QingEtAl2025.classify true Features.AttitudeValence.negative = QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass.distributiveNegative
• QingEtAl2025.classify true Features.AttitudeValence.positive = QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass.distributivePositive

def QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass.takesQuestions : PredicateClass → Prop

Only the distributive positive class is anti-rogative (Table 1).

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass.nonDistributive.takesQuestions = True
• QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass.distributiveNegative.takesQuestions = True
• QingEtAl2025.PredicateClass.distributivePositive.takesQuestions = False

inductive QingEtAl2025.Language : Type

Languages represented in the data

• english : Language
• mandarin : Language
• japanese : Language
• turkish : Language

@[instance_reducible]

instance QingEtAl2025.instDecidableEqLanguage : DecidableEq Language

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.instDecidableEqLanguage x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

@[instance_reducible]

instance QingEtAl2025.instReprLanguage : Repr Language

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.instReprLanguage = { reprPrec := QingEtAl2025.instReprLanguage.repr }

def QingEtAl2025.instReprLanguage.repr : Language → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

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

structure QingEtAl2025.Observation : Type

An empirical observation: predicate name, language, and acceptability.

The semantic properties are stored in the corresponding Fragment entry. Here we just record the empirical acceptability judgments.

• form : String

  Predicate form

• language : Language

  Language

• gloss : String

  English gloss (for non-English)

• takesPolQ : Bool

  Empirical: Does it take polar questions?

• takesWhQ : Bool

  Empirical: Does it take wh-questions?

• notes : String

  Additional notes

def QingEtAl2025.instReprObservation.repr : Observation → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

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

@[instance_reducible]

instance QingEtAl2025.instReprObservation : Repr Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.instReprObservation = { reprPrec := QingEtAl2025.instReprObservation.repr }

@[instance_reducible]

instance QingEtAl2025.instBEqObservation : BEq Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.instBEqObservation = { beq := QingEtAl2025.instBEqObservation.beq }

def QingEtAl2025.instBEqObservation.beq : Observation → Observation → Bool

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
• QingEtAl2025.instBEqObservation.beq x✝¹ x✝ = false

def QingEtAl2025.hopeEn : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.hopeEn = { form := "hope", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.english, takesPolQ := false, takesWhQ := false, notes := "Class 3: C-dist + positive + TSP → anti-rogative" }

def QingEtAl2025.wishEn : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.wishEn = { form := "wish", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.english, takesPolQ := false, takesWhQ := false }

def QingEtAl2025.expectEn : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.expectEn = { form := "expect", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.english, takesPolQ := false, takesWhQ := false }

def QingEtAl2025.fearEn : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.fearEn = { form := "fear", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.english, takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true, notes := "Class 2: C-dist + negative → no TSP → takes questions" }

def QingEtAl2025.dreadEn : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.dreadEn = { form := "dread", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.english, takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true }

def QingEtAl2025.worryEn : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.worryEn = { form := "worry", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.english, takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true, notes := "Class 1: non-C-dist → takes questions" }

def QingEtAl2025.englishObs : List Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.englishObs = [QingEtAl2025.hopeEn, QingEtAl2025.wishEn, QingEtAl2025.expectEn, QingEtAl2025.fearEn, QingEtAl2025.dreadEn, QingEtAl2025.worryEn]

def QingEtAl2025.qidaiZh : Observation

Equations

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

def QingEtAl2025.danxinZh : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.danxinZh = { form := "danxin", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.mandarin, gloss := "worry", takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true }

def QingEtAl2025.xiwangZh : Observation

Equations

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

def QingEtAl2025.haipaZh : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.haipaZh = { form := "haipa", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.mandarin, gloss := "fear", takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true }

def QingEtAl2025.mandarinObs : List Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.mandarinObs = [QingEtAl2025.qidaiZh, QingEtAl2025.danxinZh, QingEtAl2025.xiwangZh, QingEtAl2025.haipaZh]

def QingEtAl2025.tanosimiJa : Observation

Equations

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

def QingEtAl2025.osoreJa : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.osoreJa = { form := "osore", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.japanese, gloss := "fear", takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true }

def QingEtAl2025.kitaiJa : Observation

Equations

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

def QingEtAl2025.shinpaiJa : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.shinpaiJa = { form := "shinpai", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.japanese, gloss := "worry", takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true }

def QingEtAl2025.japaneseObs : List Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.japaneseObs = [QingEtAl2025.tanosimiJa, QingEtAl2025.osoreJa, QingEtAl2025.kitaiJa, QingEtAl2025.shinpaiJa]

def QingEtAl2025.korkTr : Observation

Equations

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

def QingEtAl2025.umTr : Observation

Equations

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

def QingEtAl2025.endiselenTr : Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.endiselenTr = { form := "endişelen-", language := QingEtAl2025.Language.turkish, gloss := "worry", takesPolQ := true, takesWhQ := true }

def QingEtAl2025.turkishObs : List Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.turkishObs = [QingEtAl2025.korkTr, QingEtAl2025.umTr, QingEtAl2025.endiselenTr]

def QingEtAl2025.allObservations : List Observation

Equations

• QingEtAl2025.allObservations = QingEtAl2025.englishObs ++ QingEtAl2025.mandarinObs ++ QingEtAl2025.japaneseObs ++ QingEtAl2025.turkishObs

Verifying predictions against observations

Each predicate's class follows from its distributivity and valence via classify — distributivity proved from the semantics (Preferential.mkDegreeComparison_isDistributive, Preferential.worry_not_distributive) — and the class predicts question-embedding, checked against the observations:

Cross-linguistic verification

Language	Predicate	Class	Predicted	Observed	✓/✗
English	hope	3	✗ questions	✗	✓
English	fear	2	✓ questions	✓	✓
English	worry	1	✓ questions	✓	✓
Mandarin	qidai	1	✓ questions	✓	✓
Mandarin	xiwang	3	✗ questions	✗	✓
Japanese	tanosimi	1	✓ questions	✓	✓
Japanese	kitai	3	✗ questions	✗	✓
Turkish	kork-	2	✓ questions	✓	✓
Turkish	um-	3	✗ questions	✗	✓

Key examples

Hope cannot embed questions in English (*John hopes whether Mary will come; *John hopes who will come): hope is distributive and positive, so with the answers drawn from the comparison class the assertion is settled by the Threshold Significance Presupposition — the [US19] triviality, Studies/UegakiSudo2019.lean.

Mandarin qidai is positive yet embeds questions (Zhangsan qidai shei hui lai, "Zhangsan looks forward to who will come"): its question semantics carries an anticipation-of-resolution condition, so it is not distributive and the triviality derivation does not go through (§3.1).

Turkish kork- "fear" embeds questions with a symmetric interpretation — "John fears whether his neighbor will be home" is felicitous whether he fears the neighbor's presence or absence (their GoodFriend and NoiseHater contexts, §3.2) — because negative predicates do not trigger the Threshold Significance Presupposition.