Backward licensing of Negative Polarity Items in Dutch: An ERP investigation

Pablos, Leticia; Doetjes, Jenny; Ruijgrok, Bobby; Cheng, Lisa Lai‐Shen

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2018.12.001

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 62 publications

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“…It is also to be noted that NPIs undergo licensing during sentence comprehension in languages where they occur linearly before their licensors. Pablos et al (2012) found that when in Dutch the NPI ook maar iets is followed by a negation in a sentence, language processors actively expect the downstream negation after encountering the NPI, resulting in larger central anterior negativity on the negation if the distance between them is long. Furthermore, such an effect is most prominent when the negation c-commands and properly licenses the NPI, but the effect lessens with the non-c-commanding negation (see also Yanilmaz & Drury, 2013).…”

Section: An Erp Study Of Npi Processingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Processing Negative Polarity Items in Korean: Implications from an ERP Study

Park¹,

Oh²,

Chung³

2020

Lang. Res.

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The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the neural correlates supporting the processing of two negative polarity items (NPI) (nominal amwu+N+to "any+N+even" and adverbial te isang "any more/longer") in Korean. Participants read sentences phrase by phrase while their brain activities during the processing of the NPIs and their licensors were being recorded. The results revealed that the NPI licensors in such contexts as positive or interrogative clauses not containing a proper licensor elicited a larger N400 component, possibly reflecting the cost of semantic or pragmatic integration. By contrast, sentences with the adverbial NPI te isang in the negative implicatureinducing "before" clause are not significantly different in ERP responses from those in the negative clause, thus evoking no ERP component. The present findings not only demonstrate semantic and pragmatic effects in neural signatures evoked by varied NPI-licensor relations, but also point to the multidimensionality of NPI processing/licensing recruiting semantic/pragmatic integration as well as syntactic dependency formation.

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Section: An Erp Study Of Npi Processingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Processing Negative Polarity Items in Korean: Implications from an ERP Study

Park¹,

Oh²,

Chung³

2020

Lang. Res.

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Polarity Items in Basque

Etxeberria¹,

Tubau

Borràs-Comes

et al. 2021

Nat Lang Linguist Theory

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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.

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Backward licensing of Negative Polarity Items in Dutch: An ERP investigation

Cited by 2 publications

References 62 publications

Processing Negative Polarity Items in Korean: Implications from an ERP Study

Processing Negative Polarity Items in Korean: Implications from an ERP Study

Polarity Items in Basque

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