Studies on polarity sensitivity
After a review of previous research, we explore a broader notion of sensitivity, where polarity is one of many facets, the others being connected with the nature of a given item. The discussion falls into two main parts. First we look at a cross-linguistic selection of temporal adverbials, and we study their distributions and interpretations with respect to factors such as aspectual variations and positive and negative contexts of occurrence. We analyse how the presence of negation in different parts of the sentence can cause variations in well-formedness or the temporal structure and breakdown/create cross-linguistic equivalence's within the group. The results of this cross-linguistic study also reveals the accidental negative polarity labelling of the English item and the stipulative status of licensing requirements. It appears that cases traditionally not covered by the label 'polarity sensitive' are expressions which are semantically close enough to fall into the same class, or that an item gets fragmented into parts belonging to different classes because of its articulated functioning. Despite the similarities, the Italian data, for instance, do not fit in the licensing/non-licensing partition defined
Tovena, Lucia M.
Studies on polarity sensitivity. After a review of previous research, we explore a broader notion of sensitivity, where polarity is one of many facets, the others being connected with the nature of a given item. The discussion falls into two main parts. First we look at a cross-linguistic selection of temporal adverbials, and we study their distributions and interpretations with respect to factors such as aspectual variations and positive and negative contexts of occurrence. We analyse how the presence of negation in different parts of the sentence can cause variations in well-formedness or the temporal structure and breakdown/create cross-linguistic equivalence's within the group. The results of this cross-linguistic study also reveals the accidental negative polarity labelling of the English item and the stipulative status of licensing requirements. It appears that cases traditionally not covered by the label 'polarity sensitive' are expressions which are semantically close enough to fall into the same class, or that an item gets fragmented into parts belonging to different classes because of its articulated functioning. Despite the similarities, the Italian data, for instance, do not fit in the licensing/non-licensing partition defined
studies polarity sensitivity review_previous explore broad notion sensitivity polarity many facet others connect nature give item discussion fall_two main_part first look cross_linguistic selection temporal adverbial study distribution interpretation respect factor aspectual variation positive_negative context occurrence analyse presence negation different_part sentence cause variation well formedness temporal structure breakdown create cross_linguistic equivalence within group cross_linguistic study also_reveal accidental negative polarity label english item status licensing requirement appear case traditionally cover label polarity sensitive expression semantically close enough fall class item get fragmented part belong_different class articulate functioning despite similarity italian data instance fit licensing non licensing partition define