On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context

In this paper we experimentally investigate (i) how native speakers of English interpret negative quantifiers (e.g. nobody, nothing) when used as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context, and (ii) whether their preferences correlate to their interpretation of ful...

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Authors: Tubau, Susagna|||0000-0002-3677-6607, Puig Mayenco, Eloi|||0000-0002-5622-8018
Format: article
Publication Date:2025
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:323161
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/323161
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10828-025-09163-3
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Negative quantifiers
Fragment answers
Negative wh-questions
Double negation
Negative concord
English
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spelling On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing contextan experimental investigationTubau, Susagna|||0000-0002-3677-6607Puig Mayenco, Eloi|||0000-0002-5622-8018Negative quantifiersFragment answersNegative wh-questionsDouble negationNegative concordEnglishIn this paper we experimentally investigate (i) how native speakers of English interpret negative quantifiers (e.g. nobody, nothing) when used as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context, and (ii) whether their preferences correlate to their interpretation of full sentences with a negative quantifier co-occurring with a negative marker. Despite an overall preference for double negation interpretation, in which each syntactic negation contributes independently to the semantics, our results show that speakers also allow single negation to different extents both for fragment answers and for full clauses. Results also revealed a correlation between participants' interpretation. If they interpreted fragment answers as single negation, then they also tended to interpret full clauses as single negation, and the same was true for double negation interpretations. We account for these findings by postulating the existence of two different lexical variants for English negative indefinites (a negative quantifier one, ¬∃, and a Negative Concord Item one, ∃) that can explain why both a double negation and a single negation reading are possible for our participants when interpreting full sentences. For fragments, we show that both double negation and single negation readings can obtain with either of the two lexical variants for nothing, nobody and the like in approaches to ellipsis with different degrees of strictness on syntactic identity of the fragment with the antecedent. 22025-01-0120252025-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/323161https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10828-025-09163-3reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengGeneralitat de Catalunya https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002809 2021/SGR-00787Agencia Estatal de Investigación https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 PID2023-150347NB-I00open accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ddd.uab.cat:3231612026-06-06T12:50:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
an experimental investigation
title On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
spellingShingle On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
Tubau, Susagna|||0000-0002-3677-6607
Negative quantifiers
Fragment answers
Negative wh-questions
Double negation
Negative concord
English
title_short On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
title_full On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
title_fullStr On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
title_full_unstemmed On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
title_sort On the interpretation of English negative quantifiers as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Tubau, Susagna|||0000-0002-3677-6607
Puig Mayenco, Eloi|||0000-0002-5622-8018
author Tubau, Susagna|||0000-0002-3677-6607
author_facet Tubau, Susagna|||0000-0002-3677-6607
Puig Mayenco, Eloi|||0000-0002-5622-8018
author_role author
author2 Puig Mayenco, Eloi|||0000-0002-5622-8018
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Negative quantifiers
Fragment answers
Negative wh-questions
Double negation
Negative concord
English
topic Negative quantifiers
Fragment answers
Negative wh-questions
Double negation
Negative concord
English
description In this paper we experimentally investigate (i) how native speakers of English interpret negative quantifiers (e.g. nobody, nothing) when used as fragment answers to negative wh-questions in the absence of a biasing context, and (ii) whether their preferences correlate to their interpretation of full sentences with a negative quantifier co-occurring with a negative marker. Despite an overall preference for double negation interpretation, in which each syntactic negation contributes independently to the semantics, our results show that speakers also allow single negation to different extents both for fragment answers and for full clauses. Results also revealed a correlation between participants' interpretation. If they interpreted fragment answers as single negation, then they also tended to interpret full clauses as single negation, and the same was true for double negation interpretations. We account for these findings by postulating the existence of two different lexical variants for English negative indefinites (a negative quantifier one, ¬∃, and a Negative Concord Item one, ∃) that can explain why both a double negation and a single negation reading are possible for our participants when interpreting full sentences. For fragments, we show that both double negation and single negation readings can obtain with either of the two lexical variants for nothing, nobody and the like in approaches to ellipsis with different degrees of strictness on syntactic identity of the fragment with the antecedent.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2
2025-01-01
2025
2025-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://ddd.uab.cat/record/323161
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10828-025-09163-3
url https://ddd.uab.cat/record/323161
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10828-025-09163-3
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Generalitat de Catalunya https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002809 2021/SGR-00787
Agencia Estatal de Investigación https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 PID2023-150347NB-I00
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
instname_str Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
collection Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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