Polarity item
Encyclopedia : P : PO : POL : Polarity item
In linguistics a polarity item is an expression which is sensitive to the presence, in the same sentence, of certain other expressions that are "somehow negative." Polarity items divide into those that must co-occur with a "somehow negative" expression ("negative polarity item", NPI) and those that cannot ("positive polarity item", PPI). An example of an NPI is the English word any. It is ungrammatical if it occurs in a sentence without a "negative" expression (A star "*" in front of a sentence means the sentence is odd or ill-formed):
- John doesn't have any potatoes.
- *John has any potatoes.
- John liked it somewhat.
- *John didn't like it somewhat.
Much of the research on polarity items has centerd around the question what it takes for an expression to be "somehow negative". In the late seventies Bill Ladusaw discovered that most NPIs are licesed in downward entailing environments. This is known as the Fauconnier-Ladusaw Hypothesis. While it is widely accepted that this is a sufficient condition for an NPI to be licensed, it is a matter of current debate whether it is also a necessary condition. Moreover, different NPIs may be licensed by different expressions. Thus, while the NPI anything is licensed by the downward entailing expression at most two visitors, the idiomatic NPI lift a finger is not licensed by the same expression.
- At most two of the visitors had seen anything.
- *At most two of the visitors lifted a finger to help.
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