Manfred Sailer

Polish Negation and Lexical Resource Semantics

Abstract Using negative concord phenomena in Polish, we introduce and motivate Lexical Resource Semantics (LRS), a new framework for combinatorial semantics with type-theoretic representation languages in HPSG. LRS combines techniques first investigated within theories of semantic underspecification with HPSG-specific formal devices to derive fully specified logical representations of linguistic expressions.

Underspecified Semantics in HPSG

Theories of semantic underspecification assign semantically ambiguous sentences a unique semantic representation. In computational applications of natural language processing, the need for a compact representation arises in order to avoid potentially highly disjunctive specifications of different readings which scope ambiguities may introduce. Typical instances of ambiguities treated by underspecification are scope ambiguities of adjectives in NPs with respect to PPs as illustrated in (la), and different possible scopings of a quantifier with respect to some other scope-bearing element in sentences like (lb) (cf. Pinkal, 1995; Reyle, 1993).

COMBINATORIAL ASPECTS OF COLLOCATIONAL PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

In this paper we will discuss semantic aspects of collocational prepositional phrases (CPPs) consisting of

‘Doing the devil’: Deriving the PPI-hood of a negation-expressing multi-dimensional idiom

Abstract This paper discusses the German idiomatic expression einen/den Teufel tun ‘do a/the devil’ which is used for emphatic rejection. It is shown that this expression is a PPI, as it cannot occur in the scope of negation. I will motivate that the asserted content of the expression is negation. With German being a non-negative concord language, the co-occurrence of several expressions of negation is usually avoided. This typological fact leads to two different judgement patterns for sentences with einen/den Teufel tun and a negation marker. The expression also contributes a conventional implicature that expresses an attitude of the subject. This conventional implicature shows an interaction with negation similar to that of evaluative adverbs. I will argue that the PPI-hood of the considered expression is fully reducible to its properties as an idiomatic negation marker in a non-negative concord language and its multi-dimensional semantics.

Beyond ‘Any' and ‘Ever’ : New Explorations in Negative Polarity Sensitivity

The grammar of negative polarity items is one of the challenges for linguistic theory. NPIs cross-cut all traditional categories in grammar and semantics, yet their distribution is by no means arbitrary. Theories of NPI licensing have been proposed in terms of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics - each with its own merits and problems. The volume comprises state-of-the-art studies and suggests an interpolation approach to NPI licensing.