A phase-based account of NPI-licensing in Turkish

Abstract

Abstract There is a consensus in the literature that a negative polarity item is an expression that requires a licenser varying from overt negation to questions or conditionals (see Benmamoun 1997; Kelepir 2001; Kumar 2006; Kural 1997; Laka 2013; Mahajan 1990; Vasishth 1999). However, the licensing conditions of NPIs might have different accounts, which has not been fully discussed within the literature. This study aims to discuss whether phasemateness (in the sense of Chomsky 2001 and further) might have a direct influence on NPI-licensing. Based on preliminary observations, the fact that the derivation will crash if a domain containing negative polarity items is spelled out before being licensed by a negative verb suggests that licensing of negative polarity items may have to do with their positions in the derivation in coordination with the accessibility of the spell-out domains as well as with asymmetrical c-command relationships. The analysis has also an extension and an implication as to such theoretical problem as phasehood of DPs.