The many careers of negative polarity items
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Regine Eckardt
Abstract
This study focuses on “the many careers of negative polarity items”, taking a diachronic perspective on NPIs in general and on scalar NPIs in particular. Its main thesis is that scalar NPIs are prototypical NPIs. The downward entailing contexts of NPIs can be explained and made cognitively accessible by the pragmatic mechanisms associated with scalar NPIs, viz. the capacity to evoke alternatives (ALT) and the scalar interpretation of these alternatives (SCALE). NPIs with standard contexts of distribution are, or are otherwise tied to, scalar expressions, while NPIs with an idiosyncratic range of contexts are not. The diachronic development of core NPIs crucially involves the loss, change or replacement of ALT and/or SCALE. Non-scalar elements can also become NPIs, but non-prototypical ones, viz. escort particles, analogy NPIs, or mimicry NPIs.
Abstract
This study focuses on “the many careers of negative polarity items”, taking a diachronic perspective on NPIs in general and on scalar NPIs in particular. Its main thesis is that scalar NPIs are prototypical NPIs. The downward entailing contexts of NPIs can be explained and made cognitively accessible by the pragmatic mechanisms associated with scalar NPIs, viz. the capacity to evoke alternatives (ALT) and the scalar interpretation of these alternatives (SCALE). NPIs with standard contexts of distribution are, or are otherwise tied to, scalar expressions, while NPIs with an idiosyncratic range of contexts are not. The diachronic development of core NPIs crucially involves the loss, change or replacement of ALT and/or SCALE. Non-scalar elements can also become NPIs, but non-prototypical ones, viz. escort particles, analogy NPIs, or mimicry NPIs.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Bühler’s two-field theory of pointing and naming and the deictic origins of grammatical morphemes 37
- On the origins of grammaticalization and other types of language change in discourse strategies 51
- Lehmann’s parameters revisited 73
- “Paradigmatic integration” 111
- “The ghosts of old morphology” 135
- Grammaticalization, constructions and the grammaticalization of constructions 167
- Gradualness of grammaticalization in Romance. The position of French, Spanish and Italian 199
- Development of periphrastic tense and aspect constructions in Irish and Welsh 227
- Emergence and grammaticalization of constructions within the se me network of Spanish 249
- A discourse-based analysis of object clitic doubling in Spanish 271
- The many careers of negative polarity items 299
- Author Index 327
- Subject Index 331
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Bühler’s two-field theory of pointing and naming and the deictic origins of grammatical morphemes 37
- On the origins of grammaticalization and other types of language change in discourse strategies 51
- Lehmann’s parameters revisited 73
- “Paradigmatic integration” 111
- “The ghosts of old morphology” 135
- Grammaticalization, constructions and the grammaticalization of constructions 167
- Gradualness of grammaticalization in Romance. The position of French, Spanish and Italian 199
- Development of periphrastic tense and aspect constructions in Irish and Welsh 227
- Emergence and grammaticalization of constructions within the se me network of Spanish 249
- A discourse-based analysis of object clitic doubling in Spanish 271
- The many careers of negative polarity items 299
- Author Index 327
- Subject Index 331
