Licensing and Sensitivity in Polarity Items: from Downward Entailment to (Non)veridicality

Abstract

For a given paradigm of PIs, hence also for any, two questions are central. First, the licensing question: what is the property that restricts distribution? Second, the sensitivity question: why is the distribution of the PI restricted by this property? In the traditional account, since Ladusaw 1980 and through the mid-90's, the research agenda focused almost exclusively on the first question. It was proposed that downward entailment (DE) is the property that licenses PIs:

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