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In this paper, by focussing on the behaviour of polarity elements from a variety of languages from different language families (namely, Basque, Hindi, English, Romanian, Spanish, Greek, Czech, and Russian) we investigate the relationship between polarity sensitive items (PSIs) and negative polarity items (NPIs) on the one hand, and between PSIs and negative concord items (NCIs) on the other. Based on a number of contrasts that we find, we argue that: (i) if a language has PSIs it does not necessarily have NCIs; (ii) PSIs need to be distinguished from NPIs; (iii) NCIs emerge as a subtype of PSIs, not of NPIs; and (iv) all languages that show negative concord (NC) also have polarity sensitivity (PS), but the opposite does not hold. We thus postulate that PS is a general phenomenon across languages with negative polarity (NPol) and NC as possible subtypes of PS but independent among them, and argue against the standard hypothesis that NC is a special subtype of NPol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of minimizer expressions in negative polarity contexts is a pragmatic strategy to increase the relevance of an utterance. Minimizers are the lowest step of a scale that is inferentially configured from the presuppositions managed by the speaker. This pragmatic scale becomes completely negated when the lowest step is negated and thus all the active presuppositions. In this piece of work a general classification of minimizer expressions in Peninsular Spanish is proposed taking into account semantic and syntactic criteria. Two main properties of these units are also explained, sensibility to negative polarity and scalarity, because the interaction between them triggers inferential processes that add extra information to an utterance and increase its relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of ambient illumination and negatively polarized text color on visual fatigue, exploring the issue of visual fatigue when using visual display terminals in low-illumination environments. The research methodology utilizes an experimental design to collect data on changes in pupil accommodation and blink rate through an eye tracker. Participants completed a reading task while exposed to various text colors and ambient light conditions to evaluate visual fatigue and cognitive performance. The study's findings suggest that text color significantly affects visual fatigue, with red text causing the highest level of visual fatigue and yellow text causing the lowest level of visual fatigue. Improvements in ambient lighting reduce visual fatigue, but the degree of improvement varies depending on the text color. Additionally, cognitive performance is better when using yellow and white text but worse when using red text. Yellow text is the most effective choice for reducing visual fatigue under negative polarity. Increasing ambient lighting can also improve visual fatigue in low-illumination conditions. These findings will offer valuable guidance for designing visual terminal device interfaces, especially for low-illumination or night environments, to minimize visual fatigue and improve user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sakha particle da(ɣanï) has a restricted, semantically varied distribution. It appears in three main roles: negative polarity item (NPIs), a marker of scalar focus, and doubled in coordination constructions. In coordination X da(ɣanï) Y da(ɣanï) means 'both X and Y' in positive sentences, but 'neither X nor Y' in negative sentences. Following from the assumption that NPIs denote low-point existentials, it is surprising to find a particle that is involved in these as well as 'both...and' coordination. While there are quantifier particles in other languages which overlap with all of da(ɣanï)'s uses, these typically these serve far more roles. One such common role that da(ɣanï) lacks is a basic additive 'too' reading, though an additive reading emerges with scalar focus. I argue that da(ɣanï) is an element which combines with an host that has semantic alternatives and makes them obligatorily active, in the sense of Chierchia (2013). When it combines with a low-point existential, this has the effect of creating NPIs. The 'both...and' reading is argued to be the result of da(ɣanï) inducing an additive post-supposition. However, a unary 'too' function is blocked by the additive presupposition of another particle emie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Ladusaw (1979) the term ‘free choice indefinite’ is the generally accepted term for the meaning of any in primarily modal and generic sentences, such as Any owl hunts mice, but not for what is generally called the ‘polarity-sensitive’ or ‘negative polarity’ meaning, as in Did you take any? At least part of the inspiration for Ladusaw was Vendler (1967), but Vendler took a notion of ‘freedom of choice’ to characterize all uses of any. This paper has three goals: (i) to offer a critical survey, updating earlier ones by Horn (2000a, 2000b, 2005) of the question whether English any has one meaning – a univocal account – or two – an ambiguist account, with the two alleged meanings involving negative polarity, on the one hand, and free choice, on the other hand; (ii) to confirm, in agreement with much current work, that Vendler (1967) was right, and to suggest, in disagreement with most if not all current work, to make terminology reflect the insight and no longer restrict the term ‘free choice’ to just a few of the meanings of any; and (iii) to offer a new univocal approach of any, hypothesizing its meaning to contain the components ‘existence’ and ‘free choice’, and using the notion of ‘at-issueness’.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate double negation in Persian in the framework of Cognitive linguistics and based on the theory of mental spaces. Negation is one of the most important cognitive, intellectual and linguistic categories in the human mind, which is manifested in different languages of the world in different ways. This category is also manifested in Persian by various negative elements and structures that generally can be divided into two categories: single (simple) negation and multiple negation. The research data consists of 921 Persian sentences extracted from the social network of Instagram. The results of data analysis show that each double negation sentence, in addition to its own mental space, evokes the mental space of the positive sentence and sometimes the mental space of the corresponding single negative sentence. Understanding the meaning of double negation depends on the formation of these mental spaces and the creation of conceptual maps between them based on the three cognitive processes of understatement, intensification and semantic neutralization.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate double negation in Persian in the framework of Cognitive linguistics and based on the theory of mental spaces. Negation is one of the most important cognitive, intellectual and linguistic categories in the human mind, which is manifested in different languages of the world in different ways. This category is also manifested in Persian by various negative elements and structures that generally can be divided into two categories: single (simple) negation and multiple negation. The research data consists of 921 Persian sentences extracted from the social network of Instagram. The results of data analysis show that each double negation sentence, in addition to its own mental space, evokes the mental space of the positive sentence and sometimes the mental space of the corresponding single negative sentence. Understanding the meaning of double negation depends on the formation of these mental spaces and the creation of conceptual maps between them based on the three cognitive processes of understatement, intensification and semantic neutralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of ambient illumination and negatively polarized text color on visual fatigue, exploring the issue of visual fatigue when using visual display terminals in low-illumination environments. The research methodology utilizes an experimental design to collect data on changes in pupil accommodation and blink rate through an eye tracker. Participants completed a reading task while exposed to various text colors and ambient light conditions to evaluate visual fatigue and cognitive performance. The study’s findings suggest that text color significantly affects visual fatigue, with red text causing the highest level of visual fatigue and yellow text causing the lowest level of visual fatigue. Improvements in ambient lighting reduce visual fatigue, but the degree of improvement varies depending on the text color. Additionally, cognitive performance is better when using yellow and white text but worse when using red text. Yellow text is the most effective choice for reducing visual fatigue under negative polarity. Increasing ambient lighting can also improve visual fatigue in low-illumination conditions. These findings will offer valuable guidance for designing visual terminal device interfaces, especially for low-illumination or night environments, to minimize visual fatigue and improve user experience.

Subjunctives are typically used in intensional, or modal, contexts to talk about possible worlds, but they can also be licensed in negative contexts. While prior work has sought to unify these ‘polarity’ subjunctives with ‘intensional’ subjunctives, in this article I build a case that they represent, in German and Russian at least, a distinct use as negative polarity items (NPIs). This usage fills a gap in the typology of NPIs: unlike known items such as any or ever, which are taken to activate alternatives consisting of individuals, eventualities, or times, these items activate alternatives consisting of worlds [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinhart (1983) proposed that quantificational binding is subject to a surface c-command condition. Her claim has been widely accepted in the literature on the syntax-semantics interface. However, Barker (2012) presented systematic counterevidence against the c-command requirement from English. The current paper addresses the role of c-command constraints in the grammar of three phenomena in German: relative quantifier scope, quantificational binding, and negative polarity. The results of a large corpus study are presented that demonstrate empirically that scope of one quantifier over another, quantificational binding, and the licensing of negative polarity items in German are systematically possible in structural configurations where surface c-command cannot reasonably be assumed to obtain. Further corpus evidence is produced which shows that the non-c-commanding quantifiers in the examples typically occur in contexts where the set they quantify over is discourse-old or easy to accommodate. The overall picture that emerges from the empirical evidence is that topicality motivates wide scope, and scope rather than c-command licenses negative polarity items and bound pronouns.

The study explores the acquisition of properties of the English existential quantifier any by German-speaking learners of English. The English existential quantifier is of particular theoretical interest, since its subtle grammatical constraints are often unobservable and thus may induce learnability difficulties, especially if parallel constructions in the L1 are scarce or entirely absent. In addition, the properties are underspecified in pedagogical materials, which renders them an apt test case for the exploration of input and taught knowledge in relation to acquisitional processes. The research question asks whether observable and/or learned grammar knowledge can shape acquired knowledge as measured by means of acceptability judgement tasks. To test this, 72 German-speaking C1 learners of English provided paced acceptability judgement ratings of sentences with any, which systematically differed according to grammatical and acquisitional constraints, partly replicating an experimental design by Marsden et al. (2018). Our results suggest sensitivity of German learners of English towards the grammatical constraints of any. This sensitivity seems to partly rest on explicit pedagogical input, with minimal L1 influence, but with some marked deviations from previous findings.

This paper aims to advance the general understanding of negative concord (as in English We don’t need no education) and connective negation (as in English neither … nor’) through an analysis of Persian. For negative concord with indefinites the analysis highlights differences between human vs. non-human and pronominal vs. nominal negative concord. It also deals with the problem that hič, the word that arguably marks negation in negative indefinites, also has a non-negative emphatic meaning in questions. For the relation between negative concord and connective negation the paper suggests the importance of two new parameters: (i) are the connective negator and the normal clausal negator similar? and (ii) can one of two negatively connected phrases precede the verb and the other follow it?

The present paper deals with the postposition of the indefinite "algum" (some) in relation to the noun to instantiate the negative polarity in the nominal phrase in the Portuguese language diachrony, seeking to understand: (i) the nature of the structure [N+algum] in sixteenth-, seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Portuguese texts, and in nineteenth-century Brazilian texts; and (ii) the process of grammaticalization of the structure as a Negative Polarity Item (IPN, in Portuguese Item de Polaridade Negativa) in the history of the language. It has been found that the structure [N+algum], with inversion, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Classical Portuguese (PCL, in Portuguese Português Clássico), could be used with non-negative value and that other elements could occur in a noun phrase (NP), including the possibility of inflection and non-adjacency between the noun and the indefinite. Such facts supported the hypothesis that in PCL the structure [N+algum] was not grammaticalized as an IPN and the negative value was valued by the presence of a sentential negation operator, preposition or negative conjunction in a higher syntactic domain. It has been concluded that the indefinite in PCL is a determiner (D) even in structures with inversion, these being derived from the movement of the lexical part of the phrase to the specifier position of Determiner Phrase (DP) a fact that contemplates the D properties of "algum" in PCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I undertake to resolve a main pragmatic puzzle triggered by Bank-type cases. After accepting ‘sanitized’ intuitions about Truth-Values, as reflected in x-phi experiments, the pragmatic puzzle about whether the husband is inconsistent remains, and if he isn’t (contrary to a first-blush impression), which intuitively is the case, how are we to explain it. The context in such cases is pragmatic, with awareness of high risks, and the treatment I propose is pragmatic as well, but not Gricean. I offer a new Pragmatics whose main tools are Steering Thrust (towards, e.g., action) and Posting. It focuses on what I call Action-Directed Pragmatics. An overall view of Pragmatics centers on the primary resort to Sayability rather than to Truth-Values, and to the Pragmatic phenomenon of co-present operative norm-types, which can conflict in some cases vis-à-vis particular actions and about what subjects can say. The very satisfactory explanation of the above puzzle that I offer is in such terms. In particular, attention is focused on the phenomenon of Negative-Polarity Pragmatic Functors (such as: I don’t know that p, or: I am not sure that p; or: It might be that not-p). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the influence of colour combinations on legibility and aesthetic feelings for the currently popular negative polarity interface design. Legibility was measured in two different ways in two tasks: time threshold (Task I) and a 9-point subjective rating (Task II). In Task I, we combined an adaptive program to measure 37 participants' recognition thresholds and online pseudo-word recognition tasks; in Task II, 44 participants' subjective preferences were measured using a scale. We found that higher brightness contrasts led to better legibility; different background colours with identical brightness and saturation did not cause significant differences; brighter texts produced better subjective preference for aesthetic appearance, legibility, and visual comfort; and different background colours had no significant effect on subjective preference. These findings have implications for digital interface design. Practitioner summary: In display design under negative polarity, experimental results show that higher brightness contrast leads to higher legibility, while background colour has no such significant effect; background brightness and hue have no significant effect on subjective preference, but text brightness and background colour have significant interaction effect on subjective preference. Abbreviations: OLED: organic light-emitting diode; LCD: liquid crystal display; ANOVA: analysis of variance; VDT: visual displsy terminal; CET-4: college english test band 4; ISO: International Organization for Standardization; HSB: hues saturation brightness [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a novel argument based on nominalization to argue for a low structural position for negation in Persian. This proposal is advanced in two stages. First, the paper investigates nominalization in Persian to identify the height at which nominal structure is introduced. Using evidence from the distribution of various kinds of syntactic objects in the context of nominalization, it will be argued that nominalization occurs at the level of VoiceP (or just above it) in Persian. Next, the paper uses the findings about nominalization to provide an argument for a low position of sentential negation in the language. It will be shown that negation in Persian in included in the nominalized structure and, hence, negation has to be low. This proposal is weighed against previous accounts in the literature, which have taken negation to be high in the language.

This paper explores ‘expletive’ uses of the negative marker pas in Québec French (QF) (Kemp 1982, Larriv´ee 1996), which despite checking every diagnostic for expletive negation (ExN), do not pattern with previously documented cases of ExN. We show that most previous accounts of ExN can thus not explain ExN pas’s distribution. Building on van der Wouden’s (1994) approach to ExN as negative polarity items (NPIs), and adopting an alternative-based account of NPIs (Krifka 1995, Lahiri 1998, Chierchia 2013, a.o.), we propose a preliminary analysis of ExN pas as part of a ‘complex’ NPI. That is, ExN pas realizes one of two pieces in the composition of an NPI: (i) it does not contribute existential quantification of its own, but (ii) requires that the predicative existential expression it co-occurs with activate a set of domain alternatives. Though this analysis stands out in making a number of correct predictions about the distribution of ExN pas, it faces an empirical challenge, which we ultimately leave as an issue for future work.

This paper shows that Spanish ‘más que’ (lit. more than) is much more than a comparative construction synchronically. Phonological, syntactic, and semantic evidence shows that various grammatically different entities hide under this single spelling. The most prominent of these is a (phonologically unstressed) negative polarity item with a meaning “only” or “just”. By means of robust synchronic and diachronic corpus evidence, this paper explores its morphosyntactic properties and geographic distribution in the modern language, as well as when and how a comparative expression with no polarity associations could come to grammaticalize into a negative polarity item.

Minimizers are widely acknowledged cross-linguistically to denote a minimal quantity, extent or degree. With respect to minimizers in Mandarin Chinese, Shyu (Linguistics 54:1355–1395, 2016) claims that their so-called negative polarity is purely syntactically determined and is facilitated by the lian...dou ('including...all') EVEN construction. Within the framework of Dynamic Syntax (Kempson et al., Dynamic syntax: the flow of language understanding, Blackwell, 2001; Cann et al., The dynamics of language, Elsevier, 2005) which allows for interaction between syntactic, semantic and pragmatic information, we demonstrate that the total negation is actually derived from the interaction between syntax, semantics and pragmatics, rather than being determined by purely syntactic means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential impacts of extremely low temperature on threshold inception characteristics of negative corona discharge are straightly estimated through the numerical algorithm and the extremely low temperature experiments. First, the inception criterion models of glow and streamer corona are solved for assessing the salient characteristics of corona inception at varying temperatures. The feasibility of the inception models applied to different temperature environments has been verified with our measurements and literature experimental data. Through introducing temperature into transport properties, the primary avalanche propagation, ionization boundary, and electron distribution are simulated at two inception modes. Computational results show that the microscopic parameter of negative corona inception has a pronounced relationship with temperature. The inception voltage of the wire-plate electrode is measured in a platform with temperature adjustable. It is observed that with the decrease of temperature, the inception field and voltage increases pronouncedly in the range from −100 °C to 30 °C, which can be attributed to the rise of effective ionization and photon absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A negative polarity item (NPI) is a word or expression that occurs grammatically in negative clauses and a variety of other types of clauses such as interrogatives and conditionals, but not in ordinary affirmative sentences. Examples from classical Biblical Hebrew include the pronoun ‮מאומה‬‎ "anything" and the semantically-bleached noun ‮דבר‬‎ "a thing," which has been produced from the ordinary noun ‮דבר‬‎ "word, matter, action" by the process of grammaticalization. This paper examines the noun ‮דבר‬‎ in the non-biblical DSS with the purpose of determining whether it is used as there as an NPI, as in Biblical Hebrew, or as an ordinary semantically-bleached noun, as in Rabbinic Hebrew. The results show that the diachronic development of ‮דבר‬‎ in the DSS appears to be at an earlier stage than classical Biblical Hebrew, despite the later dating of the scrolls. This finding is explained as a special kind of pseudo-classicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses semantic and pragmatic features of English any-indefinites, and Slovene bare and koli-indefinites. In the Slovene linguistic literature, both bare and koli-indefinites have been known as randomness pronouns. However, examples from the Slovene reference corpus Gigafida 2.0 show that these indefinites are not always interchangeable, as their mutual name might suggest. Koli-indefinites strongly resemble any-indefinites, which are negative polarity items: they seek downward entailing environments in which they can but need not be stressed, depending on whether their inherent even-operator is highlighted or not. What is more, both any- and koli-indefinites necessarily acquire stress and generate free-choice inferences in non-downward entailing modal contexts. Slovene bare indefinites, on the other hand, share only certain features of unstressed any-indefinites: they behave like existential quantifiers and express the speaker's ignorance or indifference. Unlike the any-series, the bare series can be used in the scope of non-adversative predicates and cannot trigger negative bias in questions. This might suggest that Slovene bare indefinites do not contain an even-operator. What is more, they are unable to generate free-choice readings, which are typical of any- and koli-indefinites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I analyze the Romance descendants of Latin aliquis 'some or other', which are characterized by a complex pattern of variation in the contemporary Romance languages. I account for this variation in terms of diverging diachronic paths, tracing their determinants back to a process taking place between Classical and late Latin. Classical Latin only used aliquis as an epistemic indefinite, expressing ignorance about the identity of the referent. In late Latin a distributional extension is observed, and aliquis starts to be consistently found as an NPI in negative contexts. This multiplicity of uses is transmitted to medieval Romance and represents the prerequisite for contemporary variation. In their further history, some languages continue only one of the two uses. Other languages maintain both, but the meaning contrast comes to be related to a word-order difference. I analyze this difference as a syntactic DP-internal inversion operation, motivated by focus and connected to polarity sensitivity. Significantly, the diachronic path of the Romance descendants of aliquis contributes to our understanding of general mechanisms of semantic change, since it instantiates a cline of development that can be related to varying (hence, diachronically changing) constraints on quantificational domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) has been widely used in the machining of mechanical parts. However, the parts obtained by EDM have recast layers and micro-cracks on their surface, which seriously affect their mechanical properties. In order to remove the recast layers and micro-cracks resulted from EDM, this paper proposed to combine micro-EDM with negative polarity micro-EDM. First, the mechanical part was machined using conventional EDM, after which the surface of the part had a distinct recast layer and micro-cracks. As the conventional EDM was nearing completion, the power supply was replaced by a micro-EDM power supply and then the part was processed by micro-EDM to reduce the thickness of the recast layer. After micro-EDM, the part was processed by negative polarity micro-EDM, which can remove the recast layer and the micro-cracks on the surface of the part. Conventional EDM was performed on 304 stainless steel using a copper electrode with voltage of 250 V, pulse width of 7 ms, and pulse interval of 5 ms. The experimental results showed that the recast layer and micro-cracks on the surface of the part were obvious and the surface quality of the part was poor. After that, the same part was sequentially subjected to micro-EDM and negative polarity micro-EDM with voltage of 110 V, pulse width of 0.5 μs, and pulse interval of 15 μs. The experimental results showed that the recast layer and micro-cracks on the surface of the part were almost invisible and the surface quality of the part was greatly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most theories agree that polarity sensitivity must be related to scalarity one way or another. Superlatives are a good example of this, since their "endpoint nature" allows for them to be in negative contexts with a quantitative interpretation (Fauconnier 1975a). In this paper, I follow Fauconnier's work in distinguishing two different types of negative polarity superlatives and I show how they manifest in Spanish. This language behaves differently than English, what allows us to reach different conclusions from those of Fauconnier. In this sense, I argue that what I have called 'pragmatically polarity sensitive superlatives' are just ordinary superlative phrases (i.e. definite expressions), while those named 'minimizer superlatives' are kind of indefinite expressions where the DegP works as a complex minimizer. Thus, I will defend that both types of negative polarity superlatives have scalar properties of a different nature: while for the former the quantitative reading is pragmatically driven, for the latter it is semantically driven. In the same line, we will be able to rethink a generalization established by Bosque (1980) regarding the DegP distribution in polarity-sensitive superlatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work shows that downward entailment (DE) cannot be the right semantic domain that licenses negative polarity items (NPIs). Zwarts (1995), Giannakidou (1998), among others, argue that NPIs are licensed in non-veridical domains, those that do not entail or presuppose the truth of the propositions they embed. In this paper, based on empirical facts, I argue that DE theory is the right analysis for Jordanian Arabic. I propose an analysis of NPI licensing in which three components of grammar interface: syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Semantics defines the class of NPI licensors, pragmatics forces quantificational closure of NPIs, and syntax executes the licensing via AGREE between a phasal head and the NPI. The analysis contributes to the debate on what components of grammar are responsible for NPI licensing and provides a new perspective on the interface between different components of grammar.

Negative Concord (NC) constructions such as the news anchor didn't warn nobody about the floods (meaning "the news anchor warned nobody"), in which two syntactic negations contribute a single semantic one, are stigmatized in English, while their Negative Polarity Item (NPI) variants, such as the news anchor didn't warn anybody about the floods , are prescriptively correct. Because acceptability is often equated with grammaticality, this pattern has led linguists to treat NC as ungrammatical in "Standard" or standardized English (SE). However, it is possible that SE grammars do generate NC sentences, and their low incidence and acceptability is instead due to social factors. To explore this question, and the relationship between NC and NPI constructions, we compared the acceptability of overtly negative noun phrases (e.g., nobody), NPIs (e.g., anybody) , and bare plurals (e.g., people), in negative contexts and in conditionals. Negative items were followed by a consequence which supported their single negative meaning, while conditional items were followed by a consequence compatible with the NPI and the bare plural but not the negative noun phrase. Acceptability ratings of the critical NC sentences were reliably lower than constructions with NPIs and bare plurals, but the consequences for all three of these sentence types were rated highly. This reflects an asymmetry in participants' acceptance of NC and their readiness to interpret it in context. A follow-up study with only conditionals revealed that speakers can also find NPIs infelicitous in conditional contexts with consequences that are compatible with a negative interpretation of the NPI, and that negative arguments are felicitous in these same contexts. Taken together, the results support the hypothesis that speakers who do not accept NC have grammars that generate both NC and NPI constructions, and further, that these speakers have two underlying structures for any -NPIs in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our goal in this study was to behaviorally characterize the property (or properties) that render negative quantifiers more complex in processing compared to their positive counterparts (e.g. the pair few/many). We examined two sources: (i) negative polarity; (ii) entailment reversal (aka downward monotonicity). While negative polarity can be found in other pairs in language such as dimensional adjectives (e.g. the pair small/large), only in quantifiers does negative polarity also reverse the entailment pattern of the sentence. By comparing the processing traits of negative quantifiers with those of non-monotone expressions that contain negative adjectives, using a verification task and measuring reaction times, we found that negative polarity is cognitively costly, but in downward monotone quantifiers it is even more so. We therefore conclude that both negative polarity and downward monotonicity contribute to the processing complexity of negative quantifiers.

This paper introduces the pilot project for the Syntactic Atlas of Welsh Dialects, setting out the procedures for data collection and sketching a case study for one variable within the dataset, namely the patterns of negative concord found with the negative modal cau ‘won’t’. This item is a relatively recent innovation, and it is currently undergoing increasing integration into the negative concord system. The atlas fieldwork establishes current patterns of dialect variation, showing significant age variation indicative of change in progress and the rise of negative concord in this context. On the basis of this, it is argued that the diffuse geographical patterns attested are best interpreted as evidence of multiple innovation across a wide area, with new speakers re-implementing the innovation (“multiple reactuation”). A formal analysis is sketched out, treating the change as moving along a pathway of feature change with semantic features shifting to interpretable syntactic features and then to uninterpretable syntactic ones. This analysis is consistent with the dialect patterns and interspeaker implicational hierarchies found in the data.

In the ongoing era of flourishing e-commerce, people prefer online purchasing products and services to save time. These online purchase decisions are mostly influenced by the reviews/opinions of others who already have experienced them. Malicious users use this experience sharing to promote or degrade products/ services for their iniquitous monetary benefits, known as review spam. This study aims to evaluate the performance of ensemble learning on review spam detection with selected features extracted from real and semi-real-life datasets. We study various performance metrics including Precision, Recall, F-Measure, and Receiver Operating Characteristic (RoC). Our proposed ensemble learning module (ELM) with ChiSquared feature selection technique outperformed all others with 0.851 Precision.

This article brings together an experimental study involving L2 knowledge of negation in English and an analysis of how English language textbooks treat negation, in order to consider whether textbook explanations of negation could better exploit linguistic insights into negation. We focus on the English negative polarity item any, whose distribution is contingent on negation, whether through the explicit negator not or through lexical semantic negators (e.g. hardly). Our experiment compares Chinese-speaking learners with existing data from Arabic-speaking learners, finding lower accuracy on any with lexical semantic negators in both groups. Our textbook analysis reveals an approach to negation that is limited to form, focusing on the explicit negator not without explicit treatment of other types of negation. We propose that emphasizing the meaning of negation, with explicit treatment of the full range of negative forms could facilitate more complete acquisition across a range of grammatical properties where negation plays a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Language & Linguistics Studies is the property of Journal of Language & Linguistics Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

What is the communicative value of negative polarity? That is, why do so many languages maintain a stock of special indefinites (weak Negative Polarity Items) that occur only in a proper subset of the contexts in which ordinary indefinites can appear? Previous answers include: marking the validity of downward inferences; marking the invalidity of veridical inferences; or triggering strengthening implications. My starting point for exploring a new answer is the fact that an NPI must always take narrow scope with respect to its licensing context. In contrast, ordinary indefinites are notorious for taking wide scope. So whatever other functions NPIs may have, they at least serve as an utterly reliable signal that an indefinite is taking narrow scope. As also proposed in recent work of Kusumoto and Tancredi, I will show that NPIs are only licensed in contexts in which the wide scope construal of an indefinite fails to entail the narrow scope. In other words, weak NPIs occur only in contexts in which taking narrow scope matters for interpretation. Thus one part of the explanation for the ubiquity and robust stability of negative polarity is that it signals scope relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Azerbaijani, like many other languages, has a class of negative polarity items denoting minimal measures (along dimensions such as size, length, duration, value, weight etc.), called minimizers. This paper presents an overview of this group of expressions, compares them to minimizers in the western European languages, in particular English and Dutch, identifies the various domains in which these minimizers may be used, and discusses their distribution across polarity-sensitive contexts such as negation, conditional clauses, questions, etc. The distribution we found, on the basis of both corpus data and native speaker judgments, is very similar to that of minimizers in English or Dutch, especially when differences are factored out which are due to the fact that Azerbaijani has strict negative concord, whereas English and Dutch do not. To this end, we distinguish two types of minimizers for Azerbaijani, negated minimizers preceded by heç bir ‘not one’, and minimizers preceded by bir only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) using the electrode with negative polarity (DCEN) has been frequently suggested as a potential means of increasing production capacity. The objective of this work was to further study the performance of negative polarity in GMAWof carbon steels. In this project phase, bead-on-plate welds were carried out in flat position to assess the effect of different potential shielding gas compositions on bead geometry, finishing and spattering. The characteristics were compared with DCEP at the same current, but depositing the same volume of material per unit of length (more industrial related comparison). The arc length was kept the same by adjusting voltage to reach shortest arcs, yet with suitable non short-circuiting metal transfer mode. An approach to measure bead convexity was also proposed and assessed. The results showed that DCEN is feasible as a means of increasing GMAW production capacity. However, to become DCEN applicable with GMAW, the results suggest an Ar-based blend with around 6.5% of O2 is the most appropriate shielding gas, as much as that there is a demand for a standard electronic controlled power source able to work in constant current mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]