Polarity Items in Basque

Polarity Items in Basque

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation that looks into the acceptability and interpretation judgements that Basque native speakers give to sentences with multiple i-/bat ere indefinites in declarative sentences. It is argued that Basque i-/bat ere indefinites are Polarity I...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Natural language and linguistic theory 2022-05, Vol.40 (2), p.485-504
Main Authors: Etxeberria Urtzi, Tubau Susagna, Borràs-Comes, Joan, Teresa, Espinal M
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Acceptability
Agreement (Grammatical)
Basque language
Declarative sentences
Greek language
Language
Licenses
Polarity
Reading
Reference (Semantic)
Semantics
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation that looks into the acceptability and interpretation judgements that Basque native speakers give to sentences with multiple i-/bat ere indefinites in declarative sentences. It is argued that Basque i-/bat ere indefinites are Polarity Items (PIs) rather than Negative Concord Items (NCIs), as they are consistently associated with an existential reading in unacceptable declarative sentences without an overt negative licensor. That is, Basque i-/bat ere indefinites never give rise to a negative interpretation in the absence of an overt negative marker. It is also argued that Basque PIs differ from NCIs in Strict Negative Concord languages such as Greek in relevant ways, thus reinforcing the conclusion that Basque is not a NC language. This study contributes to a better understanding of the conditions that an indefinite expression must meet to be classified as a PI or as an NCI.
ISSN:0167-806X
1573-0859