Negation Raising: Logical Form and Linguistic Variation
About this ebook
The goal is to show the existing tension in language between the variable surface realization of negation and its stable logical representation. In order to solve this tension and to unify the interpretation of negative sentences, a mapping operation, LF-Negation Raising, is proposed.
Verbal arguments related to negation such as n-words, negative quantifiers and negative polarity items are also considered, in order to derive negative concord phenomena from the inner semantics of nominal constituents.
About the author
He has been working on the syntax of negation, focusing on the interpretive properties and the syntactic distribution of negative complementizers, the logic scope of sentential negative markers and the dependency between negative operators and polarity sensitive arguments, such as polarity items and n-words in Romance.
Additionally, he is also interested in the acquisition of the correct interpretation of negative sentences by 3–5 year old children. He has been conducting experimental research on preschoolers in different language groups including Italian, German and English in order to assess the role of the linguistic input in shaping the logic representation.
