Anticipating Negation: The Dos and Don'ts of Neg Raising. (13th February 2018)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Anticipating Negation: The Dos and Don'ts of Neg Raising. (13th February 2018)
- Main Title:
- Anticipating Negation: The Dos and Don'ts of Neg Raising
- Authors:
- Frazier, Lyn
Clifton, Charles
Rich, Stephanie
Duff, John - Abstract:
- Absract: A sentence like (i) can often be used interchangeably with (ii). I don't think it's raining. I think it's not raining. With particular matrix predicates (e.g., think, seem, be probable ) the negation from a complement clause may appear in the matrix clause, according to syntactic accounts, owing to a rule of Neg Raising, or according to semantic accounts, owing to a cancelable presupposition of the Excluded Middle (I believe p or I believe ¬ p ). Six written acceptability judgment studies approached the phenomena of Neg Raising (NR) as anticipation. A speaker who intends a negation may produce the negation early when the matrix verb permits the negation to be raised, especially if the polarity of the complement clause is at issue. Experiments 1 and 2, with a strict negative polarity item (NPI), showed higher ratings for sentences with Neg Raising (+NR) than for sentences without (−NR), failing to support the complexity predictions of a syntactic account where +NR involves an extra rule or dependency. Experiment 3 compared +NR predicates with −NR predicates and showed a penalty for matrix negation in the latter. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that increasing the distance between the raised negation and the negated predicate reduced the +NR advantage, but they showed that this was only an effect of increased sentence length. Experiment 6 showed an increased advantage for Neg Raising in a response to a polar question about the truth of the complement sentence. The resultsAbsract: A sentence like (i) can often be used interchangeably with (ii). I don't think it's raining. I think it's not raining. With particular matrix predicates (e.g., think, seem, be probable ) the negation from a complement clause may appear in the matrix clause, according to syntactic accounts, owing to a rule of Neg Raising, or according to semantic accounts, owing to a cancelable presupposition of the Excluded Middle (I believe p or I believe ¬ p ). Six written acceptability judgment studies approached the phenomena of Neg Raising (NR) as anticipation. A speaker who intends a negation may produce the negation early when the matrix verb permits the negation to be raised, especially if the polarity of the complement clause is at issue. Experiments 1 and 2, with a strict negative polarity item (NPI), showed higher ratings for sentences with Neg Raising (+NR) than for sentences without (−NR), failing to support the complexity predictions of a syntactic account where +NR involves an extra rule or dependency. Experiment 3 compared +NR predicates with −NR predicates and showed a penalty for matrix negation in the latter. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that increasing the distance between the raised negation and the negated predicate reduced the +NR advantage, but they showed that this was only an effect of increased sentence length. Experiment 6 showed an increased advantage for Neg Raising in a response to a polar question about the truth of the complement sentence. The results do not support a syntactic account but rather some version of a semantic or pragmatic account of Neg Raising coupled with the assumption that speakers anticipate salient upcoming material, such as a negative. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Syntax. Volume 21:Number 2(2018)
- Journal:
- Syntax
- Issue:
- Volume 21:Number 2(2018)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 21, Issue 2 (2018)
- Year:
- 2018
- Volume:
- 21
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2018-0021-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 160
- Page End:
- 194
- Publication Date:
- 2018-02-13
- Subjects:
- Grammar, Comparative and general -- Syntax -- Periodicals
415 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/servlet/useragent?func+showIssues&code=synt ↗
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9612 ↗
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1111/synt.12151 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1368-0005
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 8586.545000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 6473.xml