Matić and Nikolaeva (2018): From Polarity Focus to Salient Polarity #

This file formalizes the inventory behind the argument of [MN18] that polarity focus is not a linguistic category pairing a form class with a denotation. What the verum-focus tradition after [Hoh92] has tried to pin down denotationally is, in the chapter's terms, salient polarity, an interpretive effect conveyed by a heterogeneous and open-ended list of structures: in the chapter's German, English, and Serbian lists, prosodic accent on auxiliaries and finite verbs, periphrases with tun and do, fronting and inversion constructions, discourse particles, adverbs, and discourse markers (Structure, Structure.device). The inventory realizes every one of the chapter's devices and is covered by none of them (every_device_attested, no_device_covers), which is the observation the chapter sets against any account that reads salient polarity off a single form class.

Implementation notes #

The inventory is the chapter's lists (2) to (4), taken as data; the chapter's positive proposal, that salient polarity is an inference from unrelated denotations, is not a denotation and is not formalized, and the lists are explicitly non-exhaustive, so the theorems are about the attested inventory rather than about the category.

References #

source

inductive MaticNikolaeva2018.Device :

Type

The kinds of device the chapter finds conveying salient polarity: prosody, verbal periphrasis, a dedicated syntactic construction or word-order configuration, a discourse particle, an adverb, or a discourse marker.

prosody : Device
periphrasis : Device
wordOrder : Device
particle : Device
adverb : Device
discourseMarker : Device

Instances For

source

@[instance_reducible]

instance MaticNikolaeva2018.instDecidableEqDevice :

DecidableEq Device

Equations

MaticNikolaeva2018.instDecidableEqDevice x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

source

inductive MaticNikolaeva2018.Structure :

Type

The structures ascribed to salient polarity in the chapter's lists for German (2), English (3), and Serbian (4).

germanAccentOnAuxiliary : Structure
German accent on an auxiliary, modal, or complementizer, er HAT das Buch geschrieben.
germanAccentOnLexicalVerb : Structure
German accent on the lexical finite verb, er SCHREIBT sein Buch.
germanEmphaticTun : Structure
German emphatic tun periphrasis, Bücher lesen tut er.
germanVPFronting : Structure
German full or partial verb-phrase fronting, Bücher gelesen hat er.
germanAccentedDiscourseParticles : Structure
German accented discourse particles doch, schon, wohl, ja.
germanDiscourseMarkers : Structure
German discourse markers ich schwöre, ehrlich, ungelogen.
germanTruthAdverbs : Structure
German adverbs tatsächlich, wahrhaftig.
englishAccentedAuxiliary : Structure
English accent on an auxiliary or modal, he WILL be on time.
englishAccentedLexicalVerb : Structure
English accent on the lexical finite verb, he READ it yesterday.
englishEmphaticDo : Structure
English emphatic do-support, she did open the door.
englishVPFronting : Structure
English verb-phrase fronting, and learn he did.
englishAdverbs : Structure
English adverbs really, definitely.
englishParticles : Structure
English particles so, too, indeed, he did so finish the paper.
englishSoInversion : Structure
English so-inversion, and so do I.
englishFInversion : Structure
English expletive inversion, but will he fuck convince me.
serbianAccentedFiniteVerb : Structure
Serbian accent on the finite verb, ona PIŠE romane.
serbianAccentedAuxiliary : Structure
Serbian accented full auxiliary in place of the clitic, on JESTE napisao tu knjigu.
serbianAccentedVerbPostposedSubject : Structure
Serbian accented verb with postposed subject, NAPISAĆE on tu knjigu.
serbianParticles : Structure
Serbian particles and adverbs stvarno, fakat, baš.
serbianDiscourseMarkers : Structure
Serbian discourse markers majke mi, ozbiljno.