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searchaux" style="display:none">Lexical item associated with affirmation or negation</div> <p>In <a href="/wiki/Linguistics" title="Linguistics">linguistics</a>, a <b>polarity item</b> is a <a href="/wiki/Lexical_item" title="Lexical item">lexical item</a> that is associated with <a href="/wiki/Affirmation_and_negation" title="Affirmation and negation">affirmation or negation</a>. An affirmation is a <b>positive polarity item</b>, abbreviated <b>PPI</b> or <b>AFF</b>. A negation is a <b>negative polarity item</b>, abbreviated <b>NPI</b> or <b>NEG</b>. </p><p>The linguistic environment in which a polarity item appears is a <b>licensing context</b>. In the simplest case, an affirmative <a href="/wiki/Sentence_(linguistics)" title="Sentence (linguistics)">statement</a> provides a licensing context for a PPI, while negation provides a licensing context for an NPI. However, there are many complications, and not all polarity items of a particular type have the same licensing contexts. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="In_English">In English</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Polarity_item&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: In English"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>As examples of polarity items, consider the <a href="/wiki/English_grammar" title="English grammar">English</a> lexical items <i>somewhat</i> and <i>at all</i>, as used in the following sentences: </p> <ol><li>I liked the film somewhat.</li> <li>I didn't like the film at all.</li> <li>*I liked the film at all.</li> <li>*I didn't like the film somewhat.</li></ol> <p>As can be seen, <i>somewhat</i> is licensed by the affirmative environment of sentence (1), but it is forbidden (anti-licensed) by the negative environment of sentence (4).<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It can therefore be considered to be a positive polarity item (PPI). On the other hand, <i>at all</i> is licensed by the negative environment of sentence (2), but anti-licensed by the positive environment of sentence (3), and is therefore considered a negative polarity item (NPI). </p><p>Because standard English does not have negative <a href="/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)" title="Agreement (linguistics)">concord</a>, that is, <a href="/wiki/Double_negative" title="Double negative">double negatives</a> are not used to intensify each other, the language makes frequent use of certain NPIs that correspond in meaning to negative items, and can be used in the environment of another negative. For example, <i>anywhere</i> is an NPI corresponding to the negative <i>nowhere</i>, as used in the following sentences: </p> <ol><li>I was going nowhere. (the negative <i>nowhere</i> is used when not preceded by another negative)</li> <li>I was not going anywhere. (the NPI <i>anywhere</i> is used in the environment of the preceding negative <i>not</i>)</li></ol> <p>Note that double-negative constructions like <i>I was not going nowhere</i> take on an opposing meaning in formal usage, but that this is not necessarily the case in colloquial contexts and in various <a href="/wiki/Lect" class="mw-redirect" title="Lect">lects</a>, which parallels other languages which have negative concord. <i>Anywhere</i>, like most of the other NPIs listed below, is also used in other senses where it is not an NPI, as in <i>I would go anywhere with you</i>. </p> <ul><li>nobody/no one – anybody/anyone</li> <li>nothing – anything</li> <li>no/none – any</li> <li>never – ever</li> <li>nowhere – anywhere</li> <li>no longer/no more – any longer/any more</li></ul> <p>See also <a href="/wiki/English_grammar#Negation" title="English grammar">English grammar § Negation</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Affirmation_and_negation#Multiple_negation" title="Affirmation and negation">Affirmation and negation § Multiple negation</a>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Determination_of_licensing_contexts">Determination of licensing contexts</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Polarity_item&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Determination of licensing contexts"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The actual set of contexts that license particular polarity items is not as easily defined as a simple distinction between affirmative and negative sentences. Baker<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> noted that <a href="/wiki/Double_negative" title="Double negative">double negation</a> may provide an acceptable context for positive polarity items: </p> <dl><dd>I can't believe you don't fancy her somewhat.</dd></dl> <dl><dd>John doesn't have any potatoes</dd> <dd>*John has any potatoes.</dd></dl> <p>However, licensing contexts can take many forms besides simple negation/affirmation. To complicate matters, polarity items appear to be highly idiosyncratic, each with its own set of licensing contexts. </p><p>Early discussion of polarity items can be found in the work of <a href="/wiki/Otto_Jespersen" title="Otto Jespersen">Otto Jespersen</a> and <a href="/wiki/Edward_Klima" title="Edward Klima">Edward Klima</a>. Much of the research on polarity items has centered around the question of what creates a negative context. In the late 1970s, William Ladusaw (building on work by <a href="/wiki/Gilles_Fauconnier" title="Gilles Fauconnier">Gilles Fauconnier</a>) discovered that most English NPIs are licensed in <a href="/wiki/Downward_entailing" title="Downward entailing">downward entailing</a> environments. This is known as the <a href="/w/index.php?title=Fauconnier%E2%80%93Ladusaw_hypothesis&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Fauconnier–Ladusaw hypothesis (page does not exist)">Fauconnier–Ladusaw hypothesis</a>. A downward entailing environment, however, is not a necessary condition for an NPI to be licensed—they may be licensed by some <a href="/wiki/Non-monotonic_logic" title="Non-monotonic logic">non-monotone</a> (and thus not downward entailing) contexts, like "exactly N," as well. </p> <dl><dd>*Some people have ever been on the moon.</dd> <dd>Exactly three people have ever been on the moon.</dd></dl> <p>Nor is a downward entailing environment a sufficient condition for all negative polarity items, as first pointed out by Zwarts (1981) for Dutch "ook maar." </p><p>Licensing contexts across languages include the scope of n-words (negative <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_particle" title="Grammatical particle">particles</a>, negative <a href="/wiki/Quantifier_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Quantifier (linguistics)">quantifiers</a>), the <a href="/wiki/Antecedent_(grammar)" title="Antecedent (grammar)">antecedent</a> of <a href="/wiki/Indicative_conditional" title="Indicative conditional">conditionals</a>, <a href="/wiki/Question" title="Question">questions</a>, the <a href="/w/index.php?title=Restrictor_(linguistics)&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Restrictor (linguistics) (page does not exist)">restrictor</a> of universal quantifiers, non-affirmative verbs (doubt), adversative predicates (be surprised), negative <a href="/wiki/Conjunction_(grammar)" title="Conjunction (grammar)">conjunctions</a> (without), <a href="/wiki/Comparative" title="Comparative">comparatives</a> and <a href="/wiki/Superlative" class="mw-redirect" title="Superlative">superlatives</a>, <i>too</i>-phrases, negative predicates (unlikely), some <a href="/wiki/Subjunctive" class="mw-redirect" title="Subjunctive">subjunctive</a> <a href="/wiki/Complement_(linguistics)" title="Complement (linguistics)">complements</a>, some disjunctions, <a href="/wiki/Imperative_mood" title="Imperative mood">imperatives</a>, and others (finally, only). Given that many of these environments are not strictly downward entailing, alternative licensing conditions have been proposed building on concepts such as <a href="/wiki/Strawson_entailment" title="Strawson entailment">Strawson entailment</a> and <a href="/wiki/Nonveridicality" class="mw-redirect" title="Nonveridicality">nonveridicality</a> (proposed by <a href="/wiki/Frans_Zwarts" title="Frans Zwarts">Zwarts</a> and <a href="/wiki/Anastasia_Giannakidou" title="Anastasia Giannakidou">Giannakidou</a>). </p><p>Different NPIs may be licensed by different expressions. Thus, while the NPI <i>anything</i> is licensed by the <a href="/wiki/Downward_entailing" title="Downward entailing">downward entailing</a> expression <i>at most two of the visitors</i>, the <a href="/wiki/Idiom" title="Idiom">idiomatic</a> NPI <i>not lift a finger</i> (known as a <a href="/wiki/Minimizer" title="Minimizer">minimizer</a>) is not licensed by the same expression. </p> <dl><dd>At most two of the visitors had seen anything.</dd> <dd>*At most two of the visitors lifted a finger to help.</dd></dl> <p>While NPIs have been discovered in many languages, their distribution is subject to substantial cross-linguistic variation; this aspect of NPIs is currently the subject of ongoing research in <a href="/w/index.php?title=Comparative_semantics&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Comparative semantics (page does not exist)">cross-linguistic semantics</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Polarity_item&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Downward_entailing" title="Downward entailing">Downward entailing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generalized_quantifier" title="Generalized quantifier">Generalized quantifier</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_polarity" class="mw-redirect" title="Grammatical polarity">Grammatical polarity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Subtrigging" title="Subtrigging">Subtrigging</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Veridicality" title="Veridicality">Veridicality</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Polarity_item&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Notes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">See Baker (1970).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">See Baker (1970).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Giannakidou, Anastasia. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://semarch.linguistics.fas.nyu.edu/Archive/WM0ZTVhZ/handbookpaper.pdf">"Negative and positive polarity items: licensing, compositionality and variation".</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170118224142/http://semarch.linguistics.fas.nyu.edu/Archive/WM0ZTVhZ/handbookpaper.pdf">Archived</a> 2017-01-18 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a> Prepared for Maienborn, Claudia, Klaus von Heusinger, and Paul Portner (eds). <i>Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning</i>. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (January 2008).</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Polarity_item&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFBaker1970" class="citation journal cs1">Baker, C. Lee (1970). "Double Negatives". <i>Linguistic Inquiry</i>. <b>1</b> (2): 169–186. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4177551">4177551</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Linguistic+Inquiry&rft.atitle=Double+Negatives&rft.volume=1&rft.issue=2&rft.pages=169-186&rft.date=1970&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F4177551%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Baker&rft.aufirst=C.+Lee&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APolarity+item" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFKlima1964" class="citation conference cs1"><a href="/wiki/Edward_Klima" title="Edward Klima">Klima, Edward</a> (1964). "Negation in English". In Jerry A. Fodor & Jerrold J. Katz (ed.). <i>The structure of language</i>. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 246-323.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=conference&rft.atitle=Negation+in+English&rft.btitle=The+structure+of+language&rft.date=1964&rft.aulast=Klima&rft.aufirst=Edward&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APolarity+item" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFFauconnier1975" class="citation conference cs1"><a href="/wiki/Gilles_Fauconnier" title="Gilles Fauconnier">Fauconnier, Gilles</a> (1975). "Polarity and the scale principle". <i>Chicago Linguistic Society</i>. Vol. 11. pp. 188–199.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=conference&rft.atitle=Polarity+and+the+scale+principle&rft.btitle=Chicago+Linguistic+Society&rft.pages=188-199&rft.date=1975&rft.aulast=Fauconnier&rft.aufirst=Gilles&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APolarity+item" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFGiannakidou2001" class="citation journal cs1">Giannakidou, Anastasia (2001). "The Meaning of Free Choice". <i>Linguistics and Philosophy</i>. <b>24</b> (6): 659–735. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1012758115458">10.1023/A:1012758115458</a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:10533949">10533949</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Linguistics+and+Philosophy&rft.atitle=The+Meaning+of+Free+Choice&rft.volume=24&rft.issue=6&rft.pages=659-735&rft.date=2001&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1023%2FA%3A1012758115458&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A10533949%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft.aulast=Giannakidou&rft.aufirst=Anastasia&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APolarity+item" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFLadusaw1979" class="citation book cs1">Ladusaw, William A. (1979). <i>Polarity Sensitivity as Inherent Scope Relations</i>. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Polarity+Sensitivity+as+Inherent+Scope+Relations&rft.date=1979&rft.aulast=Ladusaw&rft.aufirst=William+A.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APolarity+item" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFZwarts1981" class="citation journal cs1">Zwarts, Frans (1981). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/zwar007nega01_01/zwar007nega01_01_0001.php">"Negatief Polaire Uitdrukkingen I"</a>. <i>GLOT</i>. <b>4</b>: 35–102.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=GLOT&rft.atitle=Negatief+Polaire+Uitdrukkingen+I&rft.volume=4&rft.pages=35-102&rft.date=1981&rft.aulast=Zwarts&rft.aufirst=Frans&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dbnl.org%2Ftekst%2Fzwar007nega01_01%2Fzwar007nega01_01_0001.php&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APolarity+item" class="Z3988"></span></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Polarity_item&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.english-linguistics.de/sfb441/a5/pib/XML2HTML/list.html">The Polarity Items Bibliography (Tübingen University)</a></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFIsacCharles_Reiss2013" class="citation book cs1">Isac, Daniela; Charles Reiss (2013). <span class="id-lock-registration" title="Free registration required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/ilanguageintrodu00dani"><i>I-language: An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science, 2nd edition</i></a></span>. Oxford University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-953420-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-953420-3"><bdi>978-0-19-953420-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=I-language%3A+An+Introduction+to+Linguistics+as+Cognitive+Science%2C+2nd+edition&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=2013&rft.isbn=978-0-19-953420-3&rft.aulast=Isac&rft.aufirst=Daniela&rft.au=Charles+Reiss&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Filanguageintrodu00dani&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APolarity+item" class="Z3988"></span> In the book, there is an introductory discussion of negative polarity items spanning several chapters, covering syntax, semantics, sociolinguistic aspects.</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.english-linguistics.de/codii/">The Collection of Distributionally Idiosyncratic Items, containing German and Rumanian NPIs (Tübingen University)</a></li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ul{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist .mw-empty-li{display:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dt::after{content:": "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist 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title="Formal semantics (natural language)">Formal semantics (natural language)</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Central concepts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Principle_of_compositionality" title="Principle of compositionality">Compositionality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Denotation" title="Denotation">Denotation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Entailment" class="mw-redirect" title="Entailment">Entailment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extension_(semantics)" title="Extension (semantics)">Extension</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generalized_quantifier" title="Generalized quantifier">Generalized quantifier</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intension" title="Intension">Intension</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Logical_form_(linguistics)" title="Logical form (linguistics)">Logical form</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Presupposition" title="Presupposition">Presupposition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proposition" title="Proposition">Proposition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reference" title="Reference">Reference</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Scope_(formal_semantics)" title="Scope (formal semantics)">Scope</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Speech_act" title="Speech act">Speech act</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Syntax%E2%80%93semantics_interface" title="Syntax–semantics interface">Syntax–semantics interface</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Truth-conditional_semantics" title="Truth-conditional semantics">Truth conditions</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Topics</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Areas</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anaphora_(linguistics)" title="Anaphora (linguistics)">Anaphora</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ambiguity" title="Ambiguity">Ambiguity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Binding_(linguistics)" title="Binding (linguistics)">Binding</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conditional_sentence" title="Conditional sentence">Conditionals</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Definiteness" title="Definiteness">Definiteness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Disjunction" class="mw-redirect" title="Disjunction">Disjunction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evidentiality" title="Evidentiality">Evidentiality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Focus_(linguistics)" title="Focus (linguistics)">Focus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Indexicality" title="Indexicality">Indexicality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lexical_semantics" title="Lexical semantics">Lexical semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Linguistic_modality" class="mw-redirect" title="Linguistic modality">Modality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Negation" title="Negation">Negation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Propositional_attitudes" class="mw-redirect" title="Propositional attitudes">Propositional attitudes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tense%E2%80%93aspect%E2%80%93mood" title="Tense–aspect–mood">Tense–aspect–mood</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantifier_(logic)" title="Quantifier (logic)">Quantification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vagueness" title="Vagueness">Vagueness</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Phenomena</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Antecedent-contained_deletion" title="Antecedent-contained deletion">Antecedent-contained deletion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cataphora" title="Cataphora">Cataphora</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coercion_(linguistics)" title="Coercion (linguistics)">Coercion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conservativity" title="Conservativity">Conservativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Counterfactuals" class="mw-redirect" title="Counterfactuals">Counterfactuals</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Crossover_effects" title="Crossover effects">Crossover effects</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cumulativity_(linguistics)" title="Cumulativity (linguistics)">Cumulativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/De_dicto_and_de_re" title="De dicto and de re">De dicto and de re</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/De_se" title="De se">De se</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Deontic_modality" title="Deontic modality">Deontic modality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Discourse_relation" title="Discourse relation">Discourse relations</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Donkey_anaphora" class="mw-redirect" title="Donkey anaphora">Donkey anaphora</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epistemic_modality" title="Epistemic modality">Epistemic modality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Exhaustivity" title="Exhaustivity">Exhaustivity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Faultless_disagreement" title="Faultless disagreement">Faultless disagreement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_choice_inference" title="Free choice inference">Free choice inferences</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Givenness" title="Givenness">Givenness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Homogeneity_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Homogeneity (linguistics)">Homogeneity (linguistics)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hurford_disjunction" title="Hurford disjunction">Hurford disjunction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inalienable_possession" title="Inalienable possession">Inalienable possession</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Intersective modification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Logophoricity" title="Logophoricity">Logophoricity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mirativity" title="Mirativity">Mirativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Modal_subordination" title="Modal subordination">Modal subordination</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Opaque_context" title="Opaque context">Opaque contexts</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Performative_utterance" title="Performative utterance">Performatives</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Polarity items</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Privative_adjective" title="Privative adjective">Privative adjectives</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantificational_variability_effect" title="Quantificational variability effect">Quantificational variability effect</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Responsive_predicate" title="Responsive predicate">Responsive predicate</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rising_declarative" title="Rising declarative">Rising declaratives</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Scalar_implicature" title="Scalar implicature">Scalar implicature</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sloppy_identity" title="Sloppy identity">Sloppy identity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Subsective_modifier" title="Subsective modifier">Subsective modification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Subtrigging" title="Subtrigging">Subtrigging</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Telicity" title="Telicity">Telicity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Temperature_paradox" title="Temperature paradox">Temperature paradox</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Veridicality" title="Veridicality">Veridicality</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Formalism</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Formal systems</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alternative_semantics" title="Alternative semantics">Alternative semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Categorial_grammar" title="Categorial grammar">Categorial grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Combinatory_categorial_grammar" title="Combinatory categorial grammar">Combinatory categorial grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Discourse_representation_theory" title="Discourse representation theory">Discourse representation theory (DRT)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dynamic_semantics" title="Dynamic semantics">Dynamic semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generative_grammar" title="Generative grammar">Generative grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Glue_semantics" title="Glue semantics">Glue semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inquisitive_semantics" title="Inquisitive semantics">Inquisitive semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intensional_logic" title="Intensional logic">Intensional logic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lambda_calculus" title="Lambda calculus">Lambda calculus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mereology" title="Mereology">Mereology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Montague_grammar" title="Montague grammar">Montague grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Segmented_discourse_representation_theory" class="mw-redirect" title="Segmented discourse representation theory">Segmented discourse representation theory (SDRT)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Situation_semantics" title="Situation semantics">Situation semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Supervaluationism" title="Supervaluationism">Supervaluationism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Type_theory" title="Type theory">Type theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Type_theory_with_records" title="Type theory with records">TTR</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Concepts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Autonomy_of_syntax" title="Autonomy of syntax">Autonomy of syntax</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Context_set" class="mw-redirect" title="Context set">Context set</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Continuation" title="Continuation">Continuation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conversational_scoreboard" title="Conversational scoreboard">Conversational scoreboard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Downward_entailing" title="Downward entailing">Downward entailing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Existential_closure" title="Existential closure">Existential closure</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Function_application" title="Function application">Function application</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Meaning_postulate" title="Meaning postulate">Meaning postulate</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Monad_(functional_programming)" title="Monad (functional programming)">Monads</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Plural_quantification" title="Plural quantification">Plural quantification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Possible_world" title="Possible world">Possible world</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantifier_raising" class="mw-redirect" title="Quantifier raising">Quantifier raising</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantization_(linguistics)" title="Quantization (linguistics)">Quantization</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Question_under_discussion" title="Question under discussion">Question under discussion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Semantic_parsing" title="Semantic parsing">Semantic parsing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Squiggle_operator" title="Squiggle operator">Squiggle operator</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Strawson_entailment" title="Strawson entailment">Strawson entailment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Strict_conditional" title="Strict conditional">Strict conditional</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Type_shifter" title="Type shifter">Type shifter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Universal_grinder" title="Universal grinder">Universal grinder</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">See also</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cognitive_semantics" title="Cognitive semantics">Cognitive semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Computational_semantics" title="Computational semantics">Computational semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Distributional_semantics" title="Distributional semantics">Distributional semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Formal_grammar" title="Formal grammar">Formal grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inferentialism" class="mw-redirect" title="Inferentialism">Inferentialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Logic_translation" title="Logic translation">Logic translation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Linguistics_wars" title="Linguistics wars">Linguistics wars</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_language" title="Philosophy of language">Philosophy of language</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pragmatics" title="Pragmatics">Pragmatics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Semantics_of_logic" title="Semantics of logic">Semantics of logic</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>    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