As strong as an NPI in LSF, NGT and LIS

Abstract

Negative polarity items emerge from the interaction between some properties

of the semantic module of human language and its lexicon. This leads to

the expectation that they should be equally common in spoken and sign language,

contrary to what has been documented. We describe the sign UNTIL in French Sign

Language, Italian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands. We show

that under its punctual reading, UNTIL behaves as a strong negative polarity item,

just like English until. We also discuss why more prototypical cases of polarity

items like any or ever are much harder to find in sign language