Czech three-way negation in polar questions (Staňková 2026) #
[stankova-2026] proposes that negation in Czech polar questions occupies
three LF positions (her (16)) — outer (PolP), medial (ModP), inner (TP)
— fingerprinted by polarity items and the diagnostic particles
náhodou / ještě / fakt (her Table 1, encoded as the substrate's
licenses):
| Position | ne- > PPI | NCI | náhodou | ještě | fakt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| outer | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| medial | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| inner | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Main results #
signatures_distinct,particle_signatures_distinct— the Table 1 columns jointly fingerprint the three positions.nahodou_identifies_outer,jeste_identifies_inner,fakt_plus_no_jeste_identifies_medial— per-particle pinning.instance Distributed Particle NegPosition— Table 1 as a licensing axis alongside clause type and embedding.czech_refines_loNQ— Czech splits [Rom24]'s LoNQ into inner and medial.czechBiasProfile— [Sim24]'s Table 2 grid of PQ forms by evidential × original bias.examples_match_table1— the paper's examples (Data.Examples.Stankova2026) check against Table 1.
References #
Table 1 fingerprints #
The Boolean signature of a negation position across the five Table 1 diagnostics.
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Each negation position has a unique diagnostic signature — the empirical basis for the three-way distinction.
Only inner negation licenses NCIs: the Agree relation with ¬
requires LF c-command, and medial and outer negation are too high
([stankova-2026] (6), (10)).
The diagnostic particles ([stankova-2026] §2.2, Table 1) #
Entries live in Czech.Particles; this paper contributes the §2.2
licensing profiles — ještě felicitous in PQs only under inner
negation (§2.2.2, (14); with telic predicates it requires negation,
(13)), fakt licensed by inner and medial but repelled by outer on its
canonical reading (§2.2.3, (15), fn. 8), vůbec an NPI licensed by
inner only ((9)-(10)) — plus the Table 1 assignments and the
fingerprint results.
This paper's classification of its three particles (the others are
classified in StankovaSimik2025.classification). The paper defers
fakt's semantics, noting the parallels to English really (Romero &
Han's VERUM) and Russian razve.
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[stankova-2026]'s Table 1: which diagnostic each particle realizes.
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The Table 1 diagnostic realized by p, if any.
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- Stankova2026.diagnostic? p = List.lookup p Stankova2026.table1
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Table 1 as a Distributed axis: negation position is a licensing
context like clause type and embedding.
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Table 1 compatibility of a particle with a negation position, when the particle carries a diagnostic.
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- Stankova2026.compatibleWith? p pos = Option.map (Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation.licenses pos) (Stankova2026.diagnostic? p)
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náhodou uniquely identifies outer negation.
ještě uniquely identifies inner negation.
fakt accepted while ještě is rejected identifies medial negation.
The three Table 1 particles jointly fingerprint the three negation positions.
copak is outside Table 1: it appears in positive and negative PQs alike ([SS25] exs. 19a-b).
Word order and PQ-form typology #
Czech PQs come in V1 (interrogative) and nonV1 (declarative) word orders; since ne- is inseparable from the finite verb, verb position determines the syntactic position of negation ([SS25] §2, [stankova-2026] §1). Crossing word order with polarity gives [Sim24]'s 2×2 grid of PQ forms, which maps onto [Rom24]'s PosQ/LoNQ/HiNQ typology.
Verb position in Czech PQs: V1 (interrogative word order, verb+ne- high) vs nonV1 (declarative word order, verb+ne- in TP).
- v1 : VerbPosition
- nonV1 : VerbPosition
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- Stankova2026.instDecidableEqVerbPosition x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- Stankova2026.instReprVerbPosition = { reprPrec := Stankova2026.instReprVerbPosition.repr }
[Sim24]'s 2×2 grid of Czech PQ forms ([Sim24] §3.2, exx. 11-17): word order (interrogative vs declarative) × polarity.
- interPPQ : CzechPQForm
Interrogative (V1), positive: the default unbiased PQ.
- interNPQ : CzechPQForm
Interrogative (V1), negative: outer negation, positive epistemic bias; broader distribution than English HiNQ ([Sim24] §5).
- declPPQ : CzechPQForm
Declarative (nonV1), positive: positive evidential bias.
- declNPQ : CzechPQForm
Declarative (nonV1), negative: negative evidential bias.
Instances For
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- Stankova2026.instDecidableEqCzechPQForm x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- Stankova2026.instReprCzechPQForm = { reprPrec := Stankova2026.instReprCzechPQForm.repr }
[Rom24] PQ form of a negation position: outer is high negation (HiNQ), inner and medial are both low (LoNQ).
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Evidential bias strength of a negation position ([stankova-2026] §3.1): inner strong, medial weak, outer none (FALSUM is epistemic-bias-based).
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- Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation.NegPosition.inner.biasStrength = Semantics.Questions.Bias.EvidentialBiasStrength.strong
- Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation.NegPosition.medial.biasStrength = Semantics.Questions.Bias.EvidentialBiasStrength.weak
- Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation.NegPosition.outer.biasStrength = Semantics.Questions.Bias.EvidentialBiasStrength.none_
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Only outer negation (FALSUM) is obligatorily focused ([stankova-2026] §3.2).
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Verb position realizing a negation position: outer is V1, inner and medial are nonV1.
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[Sim24] PQ form of a negation position: outer is InterNPQ, inner and medial are DeclNPQ.
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[Rom24] PQ form of each [Sim24] grid cell: InterNPQ is HiNQ, DeclNPQ is LoNQ, positive forms are PosQ.
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- Stankova2026.CzechPQForm.interPPQ.toPQForm = Semantics.Questions.Bias.PQForm.PosQ
- Stankova2026.CzechPQForm.declPPQ.toPQForm = Semantics.Questions.Bias.PQForm.PosQ
- Stankova2026.CzechPQForm.interNPQ.toPQForm = Semantics.Questions.Bias.PQForm.HiNQ
- Stankova2026.CzechPQForm.declNPQ.toPQForm = Semantics.Questions.Bias.PQForm.LoNQ
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The two form typologies agree: [Sim24]'s grid refines [Rom24]'s.
Czech refines [Rom24]'s LoNQ: inner and medial share the LoNQ form but differ in evidential bias strength and in their Table 1 signatures.
Obligatory focus singles out outer negation ([stankova-2026] §3.2).
Czech outer negation is a HiNQ with mandatory original bias for p, matching [Rom24]'s Table 1.
Czech low negation is a LoNQ compatible with neutral original bias, matching [Rom24]'s Table 1.
Czech inner negation requires contextual evidence against p, matching [Rom24]'s Table 2 for LoNQs.
Czech outer negation (HiNQ) is compatible with evidence against p (contradiction scenarios).
Verb position and context sensitivity #
Negation readings available per verb position ([SS25] eqs. 11-12 with [stankova-2026]'s medial added): V1 only outer; nonV1 all three (outer in nonV1 needs contrastive topic + focused verb, [SS25] ex. 18).
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- Stankova2026.VerbPosition.v1.availableReadings = [Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation.NegPosition.outer]
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The default (unmarked) negation reading per verb position.
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Whether a verb position's default reading requires contextual evidence ([SS25] §5): V1 (FALSUM) is context-insensitive — compatible with positive, negative, and neutral evidential bias, unlike English HiNQs — while nonV1 (inner) requires negative evidential bias.
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Context sensitivity tracks evidential bias strength: V1/outer none, nonV1/inner strong.
Which Czech PQ forms are felicitous per contextual evidence × original speaker bias cell ([Sim24] Table 2, based on [Sta23]); empty list = no form natural.
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- Stankova2026.czechBiasProfile Semantics.Questions.Bias.ContextualEvidence.forP Semantics.Questions.Bias.OriginalBias.forP = []
- Stankova2026.czechBiasProfile Semantics.Questions.Bias.ContextualEvidence.forP Semantics.Questions.Bias.OriginalBias.againstP = [Stankova2026.CzechPQForm.declPPQ]
- Stankova2026.czechBiasProfile Semantics.Questions.Bias.ContextualEvidence.neutral Semantics.Questions.Bias.OriginalBias.neutral = [Stankova2026.CzechPQForm.interPPQ]
- Stankova2026.czechBiasProfile Semantics.Questions.Bias.ContextualEvidence.neutral Semantics.Questions.Bias.OriginalBias.againstP = []
- Stankova2026.czechBiasProfile Semantics.Questions.Bias.ContextualEvidence.againstP Semantics.Questions.Bias.OriginalBias.neutral = [Stankova2026.CzechPQForm.declNPQ]
- Stankova2026.czechBiasProfile Semantics.Questions.Bias.ContextualEvidence.againstP Semantics.Questions.Bias.OriginalBias.againstP = []
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InterPPQ is the sole form felicitous with no bias at all — the default PQ ([Sim24] §4.1, ex. 25).
DeclPPQ needs positive contextual evidence ([Sta23], [Sim24] §3.2).
DeclNPQ needs negative contextual evidence ([Sta23], [Sim24] §3.2).
InterNPQ appears in three bias cells — the broadest distribution among negative forms, reflecting Czech outer negation's broader range than English HiNQ ([Sim24] §5).
The paper's examples #
Typed stimuli live in Data.Examples.Stankova2026; each is paired here
with the negation reading and Table 1 diagnostic the paper assigns.
The paper's polarity/particle examples with their negation reading and tested diagnostic.
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Table 1 predicts each example's judgment: the diagnostic is licensed at the example's negation position iff the example is acceptable.