Bender, E. and A. Lascarides [2013] On Modeling Scope of Inflectional Negation, to appear in P. Hofmeister and Elisabeth Norcliffe (eds.), The Core and the Periphery: Data Driven Perspectives on Syntax inspired by Ivan A.\ Sag, pages 101--124, CSLI publications.
In this paper, we investigate the representation of negated sentences in Minimal Recursion Semantics. We begin with its treatment in the English Resource Grammar, a broad-coverage implemented HPSG, and argue that it is largely a suitable representation for English, despite possible objections. We then explore whether it is suitable for typologically different languages: namely, those that express sentential negation via inflection on the verb, particularly Turkish and Inuktitut. We find that the interaction between negation and intersective modifiers requires a change to the way in which (at least) one of them contributes to semantic composition, and we argue for adapting the analysis of intersective modifiers. More generally, this work can be seen as a case study of universality in semantic representation in surface-oriented compositional semantics. Such representations are necessarily somewhat language-specific. Nonetheless, we still expect to see many common structures in areas of semantics such as negation. As we strive to work with a surface-oriented, compositional framework, however, we must negotiate the surface-structural differences between languages so as to achieve those common semantic structures. Thus a cross-linguistically appropriate semantic representation must not only capture meanings as they are used in different languages but also be buildable on the basis of the diverse morphosyntactic scaffolding provided by the different languages.
@incollection{bender:lascarides:2013,
author = {Emily Bender and Alex Lascarides},
year = {2013},
title = {On Modeling Scope of Inflectional Negation},
editor = {P.\ Hofmeister and E.\ Norcliffe},
booktitle = {The Core and the Periphery: Data Driven Perspectives on Syntax inspired by Ivan A.\ Sag},
pages = {101--124},
publisher = {CSLI Publications}
}