Negative events in compositional semantics

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v28i0.4429

Abstract

Negative events have been used in analyses of various natural language phenomena such as negative perception reports and negative causation, but their conceptual and logical foundations remain ill-understood. We propose that linguistic negation denotes a function Neg, which sends any set of events P to a set Neg(P) that contains all events which preclude every event in P from being actual. An axiom ensures that any event in Neg(P) is actual if and only if no event in P is. This allows us to construe the events in Neg(P) as negative, "anti-P", events. We present a syntax-semantics interface that uses continuations to resolve scope mismatches between subject and verb phrase negation, and a fragment of English that accounts for the interaction of negation, the perception verb see, finite and nonfinite perception reports, and quantified subjects, as well as negative causation.

Author Biographies

  • Timothée Bernard, Université Paris Diderot

    Laboratoire de linguistique formelle

    Ph.D. candidate

  • Lucas Champollion, New York University

    Department of Linguistics

    Associate Professor

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Published

2018-11-27

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Articles