Readings

Topics Readings
Introduction: Environments, operators, and the Condition

Collins, Chris. "A scope freezing effect with negated quantifier phrases." Natural Language Semantics 25 (2011), pp. 315–327.

———. "Outer negation of universal quantifier phrases." Unpublished paper, New York University (2017).

Fauconnier, Gilles. "Pragmatic scales and logical structure." Linguistic Inquiry 6(3) (1975), pp. 353–375.

Gajewski, Jon R. "Licensing strong NPIs." Natural Language Semantics 19 (2011), pp. 109–148.

Homer, Vincent. "Presuppositions can be disruptors too: a case against Strawson-entailment" in Proceedings of the 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, ed. Natasha Abner and Jason Bishop (2008), pp. 220–228. ISBN: 9781574734287.

Ladusaw, William A. "Polarity sensitivity as inherent scope relations." Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Texas, Austin, TX (1979). ISBN: 978-0824045555.

Environments and modified numeral quantifiers

Buccola, Brian and Benjamin Spector. "Modified numerals and maximality." Linguistics and Philosophy 39 (2016), pp. 151–199.

Strawson entailment and definite descriptions

von Fintel, Kai. "NPI licensing, Strawson entailment, and context dependency." Journal of Semantics 16 (1999), pp. 97–148 (1999).

 Gajewski, Jon and I-Ta Chris Hsieh. "Comments on negative polarity items in definite descriptions" in The Art and Craft of Semantics: A Festschrift for Irene Heim, vol. 1, ed. Luka Crnic and Uli Sauerland. MITWPL 70 (2014), pp. 181–198. ISBN: 9781502857477.

Gajewski, Jon. "Another look at NPIs in definite descriptions: An experimental approach" in Negation and Polarity: Experimental Perspectives (Language, Cognition, and Mind, vol. 1), ed. P. Larrivée and C. Lee. Springer (2016).

Schein, Barry. "Event semantics" in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Language, ed. Gillian Russell and Delia Graff Fara. Routledge (2012), pp. 280–294. ISBN: 9781138776180.

Buy at MIT Press Winter, Yoad. "Coordination and collectivity" in Flexibility Principles in Boolean Semantics. MIT Press (2001), pp. 29–75. ISBN: 9780262232180.

Modality, free choice, and exhaustification

Aloni, Maria. "Free choice, modals, and imperatives." Natural Language Semantics 15(1) (2007), pp. 65–94.

Bar-Lev, Moshe E. and Danny Fox. "Universal free choice and innocent inclusion" in Proceedings of SALT 27, ed. Dan Burgdorf, Jacob Collard, Sireemas Maspong, and Brynhildur Stefánsdóttir (2017), pp. 95–115.

Bassi, Itai and Moshe E. Bar-Lev. "A unified existential semantics for bare conditionals" in Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21, ed. Robert Truswell, Chris Cummins, Caroline Heycock, Brian Rabern, and Hannah Rohde (2018), pp. 125–142. ISBN: 9781726706841.

Chierchia, Gennaro, Danny Fox, and Benjamin Spector. "Scalar implicature as a grammatical phenomenon" in Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning, vol. 3, ed. Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger, and Paul Portner. De Gruyter (2012), pp. 2297–2331. ISBN: 9783110253375.

Chierchia, Gennaro. "Universal free choice" in Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention. Oxford University Press (2013), ISBN: 9780199697977.

Crnič, Luka. "Free choice under ellipsis." The Linguistic Review 34(2) (2017), pp. 249–294.

———. "A note on connected exceptives and approximatives." Journal of Semantics 35(4) (2018), pp. 741–756.

von Fintel, Kai. "Specific generics." Handout at Rutgers Colloquium, MIT (1996).

———. "Evidence for presuppositional indefinites." Manuscript, MIT (1998).

Gajewski, Jon. "NPI any and connected exceptive phrases." Natural Language Semantics 16 (2008), pp. 69–110.

———. "An analogy between a connected exceptive phrase and polarity items" in Beyond ‘Any’ and ‘Ever’: New Explorations in Negative Polarity Sensitivity, ed. E. Csipak, R. Eckards, M. Liu, and M. Sailer, pp. 183–212. De Gruyter (2013). ISBN: 9783110303728.

Geurts, Bart. "Existential import" in Existence: Semantics and Syntax (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy), ed. I. Comorovski and K. von Heusinger. Springer (2008). ISBN: 9781402061981.

Hirsch, Aron. "An unexceptional semantics for expressions of exception." University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 22(1), Article 16 (2016).

Hsieh, I-Ta Chris. "A note on possibility modals and NPI licensing." Journal of Semantics, 31(3) (2014) pp. 433–441. 

Kadmon, Nirit and Landman, Fred. "Any." Linguistics and Philosophy 16 (1993), pp. 353–422.

Menéndez-Benito, Paula. "On dispositional sentences" in Genericity, ed. Alda Mari, Claire Beyssade, and Fabio Del Prete. Oxford University Press (2012), pp. 276–292. ISBN: 9780199691807.

Nickel, Bernhard. "Generically free choice." Linguistics and Philosophy 33 (2010), pp. 479–512.

Towards an explanation

Cremers, Alexandre, Manuel Križ, and Emmanuel Chemla. "Probability judgments of gappy sentences" in Linguistic and Psycholinguistic Approaches on Implicatures and Presuppositions, ed. S. Pistoia-Reda and F. Domaneschi. Springer (2016).

Crnič, Luka. "Any: Logic, likelihood, and context." Manuscript, HUJI (2018/2019).

Francis, Naomi. "Presupposition-denying uses of even." Proceedings of SALT 28 (2018), pp. 161–176.

Krifka, Manfred. "The semantics and pragmatics of weak and strong polarity items."  Linguistic Analysis 25 (1995), pp. 209–257.

Lahiri, Utpal. "Focus and negative polarity in Hindi." Natural Language Semantics 6 (1998) pp. 57–123.

Schwarz, Bernhard. "This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.Notes on even (PDF)." Unpublished manuscript, Stuttgart University (2000).

Non-monotonicity and some challenges

Buccola, Brian and Luka Crnič. "NPIs, collectivity, and intervention." Manuscript (2018/2019)

Chierchia, Gennaro. "Even negative polarity items and only negative polarity items" in Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention. Oxford University Press (2013), pp. 143–190. ISBN: 9780199697977.

Chierchia, Gennaro. "Intervention" in Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention. Oxford University Press (2013), pp. 373–427. ISBN: 9780199697977.

Crnič, Luka. "Non-monotonicity in NPI licensing." Natural Language Semantics 22 (2014), pp. 169–217.

Heim, Irene. "This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.A note on negative polarity and downward entailingness (PDF)" in Proceedings of NELS 14, pp. 98–107 (1984).

Rothschild, Daniel. "This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.Non-monotonic NPI-licensing, definite descriptions, and grammaticalized implicatures (PDF)" in Proceedings of SALT 16, ed. M. Gibson and J. Howell (2006).