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The Effect of Negative Polarity Items on Inference Verification.

Anna Szabolcsi¹, Lewis Bott, Brian McElree

¹New York University.

Journal of Semantics

|September 28, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Negative polarity items (NPIs) were predicted to aid inference verification. However, experiments found NPIs did not facilitate, and even slowed, processing, challenging scalar theories of NPI licensing.

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Area of Science:

Linguistics
Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Science

Background:

Scalar theories propose negative polarity items (NPIs) are licensed by contexts strengthening propositions.
A key prediction is that NPIs facilitate inference verification from sets to subsets.
Previous research has not empirically tested this processing prediction.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the processing effects of NPIs on inference verification.
To test the prediction that NPIs facilitate set-to-subset inference validation.
To compare experimental results with predictions from scalar and non-scalar NPI licensing theories.

Main Methods:

Three experiments were conducted, involving metalinguistic reasoning and self-paced reading tasks.
Participants evaluated the validity of set-to-subset inferences.
The presence or absence of an NPI in the premise was manipulated.

Main Results:

Contrary to scalar theory predictions, NPIs did not facilitate inference verification.
NPIs significantly slowed down reading times in the inference region.
Results suggest NPI processing incurs a cost.

Conclusions:

The findings challenge straightforward processing predictions of scalar NPI licensing theories.
Results support theories positing processing costs for NPIs, such as Chierchia (2006) or non-scalar approaches.
The magnitude of NPI processing cost may depend on pragmatic factors, as suggested by non-scalar theories.