Negative properties of quantifiers in English and Swedish

• In this paper we report the results from two small-scale studies on monotone decreasing (negative) quantifying expressions (QEs) and their negative polarity properties. Some approaches to QEs view polarity item licensing and clause polarity (affirmation/denial) as distinct phenomena. Here, we investigate if this distinction holds for monotone decreasing QEa. In two studies (one on English and one on Swedish), we tested to what extent the abilities of QEs to license negative polarity items (NPIs) and to give rise to clause level denials go hand in hand. Native speakers of English and Swedish rated sentences with quantified subjects (e.g. few, not all) and NPIs (e.g. yet, until) or polarity sensitive material. The results show that other dimensions of negativity are subject to variation within each language but seem to follow each other to a high degree across the two languages, and that QEs with the same logical properties can still be negative to different degrees.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Swedish

Svenska språket / Nordiska språk

Engelska med språkvetenskaplig inriktning

English

Lingvistik

Linguistics

Negative Polarity Item

clause level denial

monotone ecreasing quantifiers

acceptability judgements

negative strength

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)