Polarity sensitivity as lexical semantics

Polarity Sensitivity as Lexical Semantics

Over the last thirty years, the phenomenon of polarity sensitivity has proven both a touchstone and a stumbling block for theories of grammatical representation. Unfortunately, an abundance of scrutiny does not always guarantee an increase in insight. Two major pitfalls are worth mentioning. On the one hand, as the theorist strives for intimations of universality, the complexity and subtle vari...

Polarity Sensitivity and Scope In`glue Language' Semantics

Lexical Semantics

Incorporating Polarity in Lexical Resources

The felicity of contrast and parallel relations as well as structures such as ellipsis are in part dependent on the presence of lexical elements contrasting or sharing. Traditional dictionaries and lexical resources like WordNet code information about antonyms, yet this is often not the type of polarity found in real contrast or parallel examples. It is not yet clear how negative or positive po...

Lexical Semantics and Pragmatics

In this paper I discuss some general problems one is confronted with when trying to analyze the utterance of words within concrete conceptual and contextual settings and to go beyond the aspects of meaning typically investigated by a contrastive analysis of lexemes within the Katz-Fodor tradition of semantics. After emphasizing some important consequences of the traditional view, several phenom...