Any Questions? Polarity as a Window into the Structure of Questions
Contributors: Chierchia, Gennaro; Dayal, Veneeta; Fox, Danny; Polinsky, Maria; Sauerland, Uli
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Description: This dissertation investigates the peculiar behavior of negative polarity items in questions and argues that a unified account of their distribution across declarative and interrogative constructions is feasible. These items are acceptable in questions, despite the fact that questions do not prima facie share anything in common with the other environments in which NPIs surface. Specifically, given current analyses of questions there is no way to argue that questions give rise to downward-entailing inferences, which is what otherwise unifies all other NPI licensing environments.
Notes: Keywords: exhaustivity, negative polarity, questions, semantics, syntax.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2013