Empirical Perspectives on Positive Polarity Items in German Mingya - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

▶
empirical perspectives on positive polarity items in
SMART_READER_LITE
LIVE PREVIEW

Empirical Perspectives on Positive Polarity Items in German Mingya - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nov 29, 2023 409 likes •695 views

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Empirical Perspectives on Positive Polarity Items in German Mingya Liu, Jan-Philipp Soehn SFB 441, University of T ubingen [mingya.liu | jp.soehn]@uni-tuebingen.de January 31, 2008

slide-1
SLIDE 1

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Empirical Perspectives

  • n Positive Polarity Items in German

Mingya Liu, Jan-Philipp Soehn

SFB 441, University of T¨ ubingen [mingya.liu | jp.soehn]@uni-tuebingen.de

January 31, 2008

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 1

slide-2
SLIDE 2

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Structure of the Talk

1

Introduction

2

Data Acquisition

3

Data Validation Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

4

Conclusion

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 2

slide-3
SLIDE 3

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Introduction

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 3

slide-4
SLIDE 4

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Polarity Items

Non-PIs PIs NPIs PPIs besonders sonderlich ziemlich ‘particularly’ ?‘particularly’ ‘pretty’ (1) Finanziell

Financially

sieht

looks

es

it

f¨ ur

for

den

the

Verlag

publishing house

(nicht)

not

besonders

particularly

/

/

*(nicht)

not

sonderlich

?particularly

/

/

(*nicht)

not

ziemlich

pretty

dunkel

dark

aus.

  • ut

‘For the publishing house, the financial prospects are (not) particularly/*(not) ?particularly/(*not) pretty dim.’

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 4

slide-5
SLIDE 5

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

NPI-PPI Parallelism

NPIs and PPIs behave oppositionally towards negativity, e.g. yet/already, anymore/still, either/too in English and non plus/aussi in French. NPI-licensing contexts are potential anti-licensing contexts for PPIs: e.g. n-words, conditionals, questions, non-affirmative verbs (doubt), adversative attitude predicates (be surprised), downward-entailing contexts in general (few, before, without). Just like NPIs, PPIs can be single- or multi-worded and occur in various parts-of-speech.

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 5

slide-6
SLIDE 6

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

PPIs: Licensing, Anti-licensing and Shielding

Prepositional phrases, adjective phrases or relative clauses can shield PPIs from being anti-licensed. Double negation is cancelled out so that PPIs do not get affected.

(2)

  • a. Hans

Hans

war

was

mit

with

dem

the

Ergebnis

result

durchaus

very

zufrieden.

content

‘Hans was very happy about the result.’

  • b. *Niemand

Nobody

war

was

mit

with

dem

the

Ergebnis

result

durchaus

very

zufrieden.

content

‘Nobody was very happy about the result.’

  • c. Niemand

Nobody

war

was

mit

with

dem

the

durchaus

very

brauchbaren

useful

Ergebnis

result

zufrieden.

content

‘Nobody was happy about the very useful result.’

  • d. Niemand

Nobody

bekr¨ aftigte

affirmed

*(nicht)

not

die

the

Bedeutung

importance

des

  • f

Klimaschutzes.

climate protection

‘Nobody did not affirm the importance of climate protection.’

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 6

slide-7
SLIDE 7

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Data Acquisition

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 7

slide-8
SLIDE 8

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Data Sources

The available data sources for potential PPIs were mainly:

Literature since Baker (1970), among others, intensifying adverbs in van Os (1989), speaker-oriented adverbs in Ernst (2005) Idiom corpus in Soehn (2006) Linguists’ intuition: Colloquial Compound Similes, e.g. rattenscharf ‘super hot’, affengeil ‘awesome’, etc.

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 8

slide-9
SLIDE 9

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Candidate List of German PPIs

lieber ‘rather’ ziemlich ‘pretty’ verdient ‘deserved’ bekr¨ aftigen ‘affirm’ leidlich ‘middling’ beinahe ‘almost’ stocksauer ‘pissed off’ affengeil ‘awesome’ rattenscharf ‘rat hot - very hot’ erstaunlicherweise ‘surprisingly’ tragischerweise ‘tragically’ gl¨ ucklicherweise ‘fortunately’ zweckm¨ aßigerweise ‘advantageously’

  • jmd. den Lebensfaden abschneiden

‘to cut off the life-thread of sb. - to kill sb.’ Ruhe in die Sache bringen ‘to bring peace in the affair - to calm sth. down’ klar wie Kloßbr¨ uhe sein ‘to be clear as dumpling-broth - to be crystal clear’ immer auf dem Sprung sein ‘to be always on the go’ . . . . . .

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 9

slide-10
SLIDE 10

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Data Validation

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 10

slide-11
SLIDE 11

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Corpus Evidence and Psycholingustic Experiments

Collection of corpus data: PPIs and their contexts “in real life”

COSMAS II (IDS Mannheim) Internet (via Google)

Experiments:

Relative acceptability judgements: Thermometer Judgements Absolute acceptability judgements: Speeded Acceptability Judgements with RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation)

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 11

slide-12
SLIDE 12

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Thermometer Judgements

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 12

slide-13
SLIDE 13

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Hypothesis and Design

Hypothesis: PPIs in negative (not-licensing or anti-licensing) contexts should

be rated lower than PPIs in positive (licensing) contexts and also lower than the non-PPI (non-NPI either, of course) items in all contexts. Design: Stimuli: antiadditive contexts, following Szabolcsi (2004) Two factors, resulting in four conditions PPI non-PPI positive context

  • I. licensed PPI
  • III. “licensed” non-PPI

negative context

  • II. anti-licensed PPI
  • IV. “anti-licensed” non-PPI

Fillers: sentences with unlicensed NPIs

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 13

slide-14
SLIDE 14

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Materials

Example of test and filler sentences: (3) Sozialhilfebed¨ urftigkeit

social welfare need

ist

is

heutzutage

nowadays

[I.]durchaus

absolutely

/

/

[II.]*nicht

not

durchaus

absolutely

/

/

[III.]sehr

very

/

/

[IV.]nicht

not

sehr

very

problematisch.

problematic

‘The need for social welfare is nowadays absolutely/*not absolutely/very/not very problematic.’ (4) *Hans

Hans

war

was

jemals

ever

am

at the

Plattensee.

Balaton lake

‘*Hans was ever at Lake Balaton.’

Experiment PPI Materials candidates 1 48 4 versions with 48 sentences plus 12 fillers for each 2 24 4 versions with 24 sentences plus 6 fillers for each

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 14

slide-15
SLIDE 15

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Results

Main effect: negated sentences were rated lower than non-negated ones.

(F 1 (1, 95) = 356.722, p < 0.001; F 2 (1, 55) = 257.693, p < 0.001)

Unlicensed PPIs were rated considerably lower than the other conditions.

(F 1 (1, 95) = 133.861, p < 0.001; F 2 (1, 55) = 44.495, p < 0.001)

Similar low rating for unlicensed NPIs and unlicensed PPIs. This proves the parallelism between NPIs and PPIs towards negation.

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 15

slide-16
SLIDE 16

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Discussion

Results support the existence of such a category as PPIs. Evidence for the assumption about the ‘anti-licensing’ relation between AA contexts and PPIs.

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 16

slide-17
SLIDE 17

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Discussion

Results support the existence of such a category as PPIs. Evidence for the assumption about the ‘anti-licensing’ relation between AA contexts and PPIs. The sensitivity of PPI candidates towards negation varies.

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 16

slide-18
SLIDE 18

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 17

slide-19
SLIDE 19

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Experiment

Aim: to prevent subjects from coming up with larger contexts word by word presentation speeded presentation rate Materials:

56 PPIs plus 50 fillers 4 conditions (same as before)

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 18

slide-20
SLIDE 20

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Results

Main effect: negated sentences were rated lower than non-negated ones.

(F 1 (1, 23) = 142.345, p < 0.001; F 2 (1, 55) = 134.050, p < 0.001)

Unlicensed PPIs were rated considerably lower than the other conditions.

(F 1 (1, 23) = 58.863, p < 0.001; F 2 (1, 55) = 20.686, p < 0.001)

Again, the results show a parallelism between NPIs and PPIs towards negation.

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 19

slide-21
SLIDE 21

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Discussion: Negation and Un-anti-licensed PPIs

Negated sentences were rated lower than non-negated ones. Claim: negation is marked and more costly (Wason 1965). Processing of negation often need go beyond narrow context and involve intonation, discourse contrast, etc.

(5)

  • a. Der deutsche Aktienmarkt war sehr schwach. (1.0)
  • b. Der deutsche Aktienmarkt war nicht sehr schwach. (0.0)
  • c. Der deutsche Aktienmarkt war stark.

‘The German stock market was very weak/not very weak/strong.’

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 20

slide-22
SLIDE 22

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion Thermometer Judgements Speeded Acceptability Judgements

Discussion: Negation and Un-anti-licensed PPIs

Negated sentences were rated lower than non-negated ones. Claim: negation is marked and more costly (Wason 1965). Processing of negation often need go beyond narrow context and involve intonation, discourse contrast, etc.

(7)

  • a. Der deutsche Aktienmarkt war sehr schwach. (1.0)
  • b. Der deutsche Aktienmarkt war nicht sehr schwach. (0.0)
  • c. Der deutsche Aktienmarkt war stark.

‘The German stock market was very weak/not very weak/strong.’

Un-anti-licensed PPIs

(8)

  • a. Politiker bekr¨

aftigten auf der Pressekonferenz die Notwendigkeit des Klimaschutzes. (1.0)

  • b. Kein Politiker bekr¨

aftigte auf der Pressekonferenz die Notwendigkeit des

  • Klimaschutzes. (0.67)
  • c. Kein Politiker bekr¨

aftigte auf der Pressekonferenz die Notwendigkeit des Klimaschutzes, einige Wissenschaftler allerdings schon. ‘(No) politicians affirmed the necessity of climate protection at the press conference(, but some scientists did).’

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 20

slide-23
SLIDE 23

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Conclusion

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 21

slide-24
SLIDE 24

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Validated List of PPIs

bekr¨ aftigen / erstmals / munkeln / ungeachtet / unvermindert / verdient / grassieren / lieber / sowieso / ziemlich Intensifying Adverbs: ausgesprochen / betr¨ achtlich / buchst¨ ablich / definitiv / durchaus / geradezu / leidlich / nahezu / total / ¨ uberaus Colloquials: abgefahren / affengeil / geil / rattenscharf / regelrecht / stocksauer / volle Kanne Speaker-oriented Adverbs: erstaunlicherweise / geheimnisvollerweise / gl¨ ucklicherweise / m¨

  • glicherweise / notwendigerweise / tragischerweise / unglaublicherweise / ungl¨

ucklicherweise / zweckm¨ aßigerweise Positive Polar Idioms: jmd. ein Bein stellen / jmd. den Buckel runter rutschen / jmd. Gestohlen bleiben / jmd. ¨ uber die Hutschnur gehen / etwas an den Hut stecken / jmd. den Lebensfaden abschneiden / Mattscheibe haben / sich mausig machen / eine Meise haben / klar wie Klossbr¨ uhe/ etwas in der Krone haben / die Ohren steif halten / jm. die Pest an den Hals w¨ unschen / auf jmd. einen Pik haben / Ruhe in die Sache bringen / sattsam bekannt sein / immer auf dem Sprung sein / einen Teufel tun / jm. Zum Teufel w¨ unschen

PPIs and their corpus data will be made available online in the Collection of Idiosyncratic Items at

http://www.sfb441.uni-tuebingen.de/a5/codii/

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 22

slide-25
SLIDE 25

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

What’s next?

Classification of PPIs per strength, van der Wouden (1997)

Negative Contexts classic regular minimal

  • ther Lic.

not nothing at most questions without nobody seldom

  • nly

not believe, that never few superlative antimorphic antiadditive downward entailing non-veridical PPI Negation

  • ther Lic.

classic regular minimal strong – – – ? medium – – + + weak – + + +

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 23

slide-26
SLIDE 26

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Many Thanks to Oliver Bott, Sam Featherston, Janina Rad´

  • ,

Frank Richter and Manfred Sailer

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 24

slide-27
SLIDE 27

Introduction Data Acquisition Data Validation Conclusion

References

Bader, Markus. 2007. Auxiliarinversion im Deutschen. Handout of a talk given at SFB 441, University of T¨ ubingen. Baker, Carl Lee. 1970. Double negatives. Linguistic Inquiry 1, 169-186. Ernst, Thomas. 2005. On Speaker-oriented Adverbs as Positive Polarity Items. In Polarity From Different Perspectives, poster at the Workshop held at New York Univeristy. 11.-13. March 2005. Featherston, Sam. in press. Thermometer Judgements as Linguistic Evidence. In Astrid Rothe (ed.), Was ist linguistische Evidenz?, Aachen: Shaker Verlag. Van Os, Charles. 1989. Aspekte der Intensivierung im Deutschen. T¨ ubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Soehn, Jan-Philipp. 2006. ¨ Uber B¨ arendienste und erstaunte Baukl¨

  • tze – Idiome ohne

freie Lesart in der HPSG. Phil. Dissertation at Friedrich-Schiller-Universit¨ at Jena. Peter Lang Publishing Group, Frankfurt/M. Szabolcsi, Anna. 2004. Positive Polarity - Negative Polarity. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 22(2), 409-452. Wason, P. C. 1965. The Contexts of Plausible Denial. Journal of Verbal Meaning and Verbal Behavior. Van der Wouden, Ton. 1997. Negative Contexts. Collocation, polarity and multiple

  • negation. London and New York: Routledge.

Liu/Soehn (SFB 441) Empirical Perspectives on PPIs in German January 31, 2008 25