Nonveridicality and Negative Polarity Variation

Abstract. This paper investigates the constraints that underlie the licensing of negative polarity items inClassical/Standard Arabic, aspiring to be the first study that provides a comprehensive account that defines thecondition under which those items are licensed in that language. I demonstrate that negative polarity items arelicensed only in non-veridical contexts in Classical/Standard Arabic. It is contended that downward entailment,Strawson-downward entailingness, polarity lattices, binding, or anti-upward entailingness do not predict the rightdistribution of negative polarity items in Classical/Standard Arabic. Furthermore, it is argued that the strength ofnegative expressions dictates a variation in the licensing of the negative polarity items under consideration.Specifically, it is shown that a weak (or broad) negative polarity item is sanctioned with questions, imperatives,adversative predicates, protasis of conditionals, modal verbs, the future, restrictor of every, the habitual, andvolitional verbs, whereas strong (or strict) ones are only licensed by regular negation. That negative polarity itemsare licensed in veridical non-monotonic contexts in a language such as English, while they are not allowed in thesecontexts in Classical/Standard Arabic corroborates recent proposals that call for a variation approach to thelicensing of negative polarity items cross-linguistically. The analysis entertained in this paper not only highlightsthe condition responsible for the sanctioning of negative polarity items in Classical/Standard Arabic, but alsoprovides evidence for a hierarchy of negative expressions strength.