Scalar Implicatures, Polarity Phenomena, and the Syntax/Pragmatics Interface

Abstract

Abstract Negative polarity phenomena, as exemplified in the behavior of English any, and scalar implicatures, as exemplified by, say, the interpretations of some (i.e., “at least one and possibly all” vs. “at least one but not all”), have often been felt to be closely related. However, the exact nature of such a relationship remains as of now not fully understood, insofar as I can tell. And in fact, some important empirical generalizations pertaining to it, if not altogether missed, have perhaps not been properly appreciated. In this chapter, I address the issue of what are the relevant factual connections between scalar implicature and negative polarity and what we can learn from this about the grammatical mechanisms at the basis of these phenomena. One of the features that makes the analysis of negative polarity items (NPIs) and scalar implicatures (SIs) particularly interesting is that they raise a number of key questions concerning how syntax, semantics, and pragmatics interact with each other. We will mostly focus on the interface of pragmatics with syntax and semantics. More specifically, here is a widespread view of the latter.