Japanese Negative Polarity Items and Negative Concord
نویسندگان
چکیده
Negative polarity items (NPIs) are a class of expressions whose distribution is restricted to affective contexts, especially to the negative context (Kato (1985)). Examples of the expressions traditionally counted as Japanese negative polarity items are: kessite ('ever'), nannimo ('anything'), daremo (`anyone'), dokomo (`anywhere'), tittomo (`not at all'), and sika ('only') (Ikeya and Kawamori (1998))1. These items have conventionally been treated as belonging to one category, namely that of NPI, and explained in terms of same conceptual apparatuses. We will show, however, that these items do not constitute a monolithic, single category, but rather are to be grouped into two distinct categories – one comprising sika, the other composed of other NPIs. We specifically show that Japanese NPIs other than sika is like negative phrases in negative concord sentences in such languages as non-standard English and Romance languages. We also show that sika is unlike other NPI items in several important respects. A feature-based account for syntax-semantics interface sika is presented that attempts to account for these points.
منابع مشابه
Negative Concord vs. Negative Polarity and the Acquisition of Japanese
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