Negative Polarity Licensing at the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Recent work on the syntax-semantics interface (see e.g. (Dalrymple et al., 1994)) uses a fragment of linear logic as a 'glue language' for assembling meanings compositionally. This paper presents a glue language account of how negative polarity items (e.g. ever, any) get licensed within the scope of negative or downward-entailing contexts (Ladusaw, 1979), e.g. Nobody ever left. This treatment of licensing operates precisely at the syntax-semantics interface, since it is carried out entirely within the interface glue language (linear logic). In addition to the account of negative polarity licensing, we show in detail how linear-logic proof nets (Girard, 1987; Gallier, 1992) can be used for efficient meaning deduction within this 'glue language' framework. 1 Background A recent strain of research on the interface between syntax and semantics, starting with (Dalrymple et al., 1993), uses a fragment of linear logic as a 'glue language' for assembling the meaning of a sentence compositionally. In this approach, meaning assembly is guided not by a syntactic constituent tree but rather by the flatter functional structure (the LFG f-structure) of the sentence. As a brief review of this approach, consider sentence (1): (1) Everyone left.