Strict Polarity - Revision history

Laqme: Link the "negative events" paper

2024-08-31T11:57:28Z

Link the "negative events" paper

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:57, 31 August 2024
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	# One idea is that <code>bụmarao(e)</code> means: ''e'' is an event with which no {{t\|marao}}-event is concomitant.<ref>[[User:Uakci]] in [https://discord.com/channels/311223912044167168/646607726817968138/1133694313742729286 #tooling on 2023-07-26]</ref>		# One idea is that <code>bụmarao(e)</code> means: ''e'' is an event with which no {{t\|marao}}-event is concomitant.<ref>[[User:Uakci]] in [https://discord.com/channels/311223912044167168/646607726817968138/1133694313742729286 #tooling on 2023-07-26]</ref>
	# Another idea is that {{t\|bụmarao}}-ing is a verb whose truth conditions are inverted from {{t\|marao}}.<ref>You are doing it right now. Are you an {{small caps\|agent}}?</ref>		# Another idea is that {{t\|bụmarao}}-ing is a verb whose truth conditions are inverted from {{t\|marao}}.<ref>You are doing it right now. Are you an {{small caps\|agent}}?</ref>
			# A promising idea from semantics research is that {{t\|bu-}} makes "negative events".<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/jos/article/40/4/585/7604664 Timothée Bernard, Lucas Champollion, "Negative Events and Compositional Semantics"]. It looks like {{t\|bu-}} can be the "Neg" function proposed here.</ref>

	What about transitive verbs? It seems ridiculous to say that we have successfully {{t\|bụchuq}}-ed for a week simply because there exists a cookie we haven't eaten all week. So maybe it's sensible for {{t\|bu-}} to turn verbs intransitive: {{t\|bụchoa}} is to keep one's mouth shut (as to not-speak is to not speak anything), {{t\|bụchuq}} is to fast (as to not-eat is to not eat anything), and so on.		What about transitive verbs? It seems ridiculous to say that we have successfully {{t\|bụchuq}}-ed for a week simply because there exists a cookie we haven't eaten all week. So maybe it's sensible for {{t\|bu-}} to turn verbs intransitive: {{t\|bụchoa}} is to keep one's mouth shut (as to not-speak is to not speak anything), {{t\|bụchuq}} is to fast (as to not-eat is to not eat anything), and so on.

Laqme: Add Category:Proposals

2024-07-24T00:27:24Z

Add Category:Proposals

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:27, 24 July 2024
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	== References ==		== References ==
			<references/>

			[[Category:Proposals]]

Laqme: proposal

2024-05-03T22:04:15Z

proposal

New page

{{Refgram|syntax|polarity_phrases}}
The '''Strict Polarity''' proposal limits where {{t|bu}} and words like it ([[polarity]] items, Σ) can occur.

== The problem ==
What does {{t|bu marao jí}} ("I don't dance") mean?

Officially, {{t|bu}} "can go anywhere" and "simply inserts a ¬ in place." Hoemaı's intent is for {{t|bu marao}} to claim an event of non-dancing.<ref>[[Hoemaı]] in [https://discord.com/channels/311223912044167168/488841289425485824/1146120466516422726 #docs on 2023-08-29]</ref>

The refgram says that polarity items "usually attach to [[𝑣P]]s or [[TP]]s."

But if the 𝑣P {{t|marao jí}} denotes <code>λe. marao(e) ∧ agent(e) = jí</code>, then {{t|bu marao jí}} means <code>λe. ¬(marao(e) ∧ agent(e) = jí)</code>. Rather than "I do some non-dancing", this claims "Something happens, but it's not 'me dancing'", which is a strange meaning. It gives us almost no information about ''e'', and it isn't really anything like what we mean by "I don't dance".

So, negating a 𝑣P (by placing {{t|bu}} before it) is apparently a bit weird. How do we get {{t|bu marao jí}} to mean something sensible?

== Other sensible negation scopes ==
Let's suppose for a moment that we have a mechanism to negate verbs: ⟦{{t|bụmarao}}⟧ = <code>λe. bumarao(e)</code>, an event of non-dancing, which we can then say {{t|jí}} participates in.

Negating a [[TP]] has different, but also intuitive semantics: {{t|Bu mala marao jí}} means "I've never danced" (a denial of {{t|Mala marao jí}}).

Maybe these are enough.

== Strict Polarity ==
We can limit negation to these two cases: {{t|bu-}} negates verbs and {{t|bu}} negates TP.

# {{t|bụmarao jí}} claims an event of my non-dancing.
# {{t|bu marao jí}} is actually {{t|bu (tuom) (tam) marao jí}}, and it means "there is no event of me dancing at that<ref>Recall that the default tense {{t|tuom}} is a "vague definite temporal reference".</ref> time."

There is always a hierarchy like <code>(ΣP) TP AspP 𝑣P (Σ-)V</code> instead of Σ heads showing up anywhere.

Sentences like {{t|Pu bu chum hao jí}} or {{t|Pu chum bu hao jí}} are now ungrammatical.

Conjunctions like {{t|rú}} now join ΣP instead of TP.

== So how does {{t|bu-}} work? ==
<div class=warningbox>There are more questions than answers here.</div>

If we say {{t|bu-}} is just ¬, then the verb {{t|bụmarao}} denotes <code>λe. ¬marao(e)</code>, which is still pretty weird. We want to say ''e'' is an event of not-dancing: an event of refraining from dance. But <code>λe. ¬marao(e)</code> only says what ''e'' isn't, which isn't specific enough.<ref>"e could still be pretty much anything, even an event of the world going up in flames" — [[User:Loekıa]] in [https://discord.com/channels/311223912044167168/646607726817968138/1073318532869271633 #tooling on 2023-02-09]</ref>

So, maybe {{t|bu-}} is not simply ¬. It's a bit unclear how to get good semantics for "not-dancing".

# One idea is that <code>bụmarao(e)</code> means: ''e'' is an event with which no {{t|marao}}-event is concomitant.<ref>[[User:Uakci]] in [https://discord.com/channels/311223912044167168/646607726817968138/1133694313742729286 #tooling on 2023-07-26]</ref>
# Another idea is that {{t|bụmarao}}-ing is a verb whose truth conditions are inverted from {{t|marao}}.<ref>You are doing it right now. Are you an {{small caps|agent}}?</ref>

What about transitive verbs? It seems ridiculous to say that we have successfully {{t|bụchuq}}-ed for a week simply because there exists a cookie we haven't eaten all week. So maybe it's sensible for {{t|bu-}} to turn verbs intransitive: {{t|bụchoa}} is to keep one's mouth shut (as to not-speak is to not speak anything), {{t|bụchuq}} is to fast (as to not-eat is to not eat anything), and so on.

== See also ==
* [[Negation]]

== References ==