Polarity Items in Basque. Experimental evidence for their existential reading
Etxeberria, Urtzi (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (França))
Borràs Comes, Joan Manel, 1984- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Catalana)
Espinal, M. Teresa (Maria Teresa) (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Catalana)
Tubau Muntaña, Susagna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Anglesa i de Germanística)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	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.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FFI2017-82547-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PGC2018-096380-B-100 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-634
Note:	Altres ajuts: ANR-17-CE27-11
Note:	Altres ajuts: ANR-18-FRAL-0006
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Polarity items ; Negative concord items ; Basque ; Existential reading ; Acceptability judgement task ; Picture selection task
Published in:	Natural language & linguistic theory, Abril 2021, ISSN 1573-0859

DOI: 10.1007/s11049-021-09513-2

20 p, 1.1 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Arts and Humanities > Center for Theoretical Linguistics (CLT)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles