Czech Diagnostic Particles #
@cite{stankova-2025} @cite{stankova-2025} @cite{simik-2024} @cite{romero-2019}
Particles and adverbs used as diagnostics for the three-way negation distinction in Czech polar questions (Table 1).
Key items #
- náhodou 'by chance' — licensed only by outer negation (FALSUM)
- ještě 'yet/still' — licensed only by inner negation (propositional ¬)
- fakt 'really' — licensed by inner and medial, blocked by outer
- vůbec 'at all' — NPI, requires licensing by negation
These particles, together with the NCI/PPI determiner contrast
(Fragments.Czech.Determiners), form the five-column fingerprint
that uniquely identifies each negation position.
Cross-linguistic connections #
- ještě 'yet' parallels English yet (NPI, temporal endpoint)
- fakt 'really' relates to VERUM/FALSUM (@cite{romero-2019}, BiasedPQ.lean)
- náhodou 'by chance' modifies the ordering source of FALSUM's epistemic possibility component (Staňková §2.2.1)
Semantic contribution type of the particle.
- orderingSourceModifier : ParticleSemantics
Modifies the ordering source of an epistemic modal (widens to less stereotypical worlds).
- temporalEndpoint : ParticleSemantics
Temporal endpoint: presupposes expected change of state. Requires propositional negation to create "not yet" meaning.
- veridicalEmphasis : ParticleSemantics
Veridical emphasis: strengthens assertion/question commitment. Related to VERUM.
- npi : ParticleSemantics
General NPI: requires DE licensing.
- evidentialConflict : ParticleSemantics
Indicates conflict between speaker's prior epistemic state and current contextual evidence. Requires evidential bias (biased context). Cross-Slavic: copak (Czech), razve (Russian), zar (Serbian).
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- Fragments.Czech.Particles.instBEqParticleSemantics.beq x✝ y✝ = (x✝.ctorIdx == y✝.ctorIdx)
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A Czech particle entry with diagnostic properties.
- form : String
Surface form
- gloss : String
Gloss
- semantics : ParticleSemantics
Semantic contribution
- diagnostic : Option Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation.Diagnostic
Which diagnostic from Staňková Table 1 this item corresponds to
- requiresNeg : Bool
Requires negation to be licensed (NPI-like behavior)
- notes : String
Brief description of licensing condition
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- Fragments.Czech.Particles.instBEqParticleEntry.beq x✝¹ x✝ = false
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náhodou 'by chance, by any chance'
Only licensed by outer negation (FALSUM in PolP). Náhodou modifies the ordering source of the epistemic possibility component in FALSUM, including less stereotypical worlds in the modal base. This is why it's incompatible with inner/medial negation: those don't involve FALSUM's modal component.
@cite{stankova-2025} (§2.2.1): "náhodou, which I translate as 'by any chance', is only compatible with outer negation."
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ještě 'yet, still'
Only licensed by inner negation (propositional ¬ at TP). Ještě introduces a temporal endpoint presupposition: the state described by p is expected to eventually hold. Combined with inner negation, it yields "not yet p" = the expected state hasn't been reached. This requires propositional negation, which only inner negation provides.
@cite{stankova-2025} (§2.2.2): "ještě is only compatible with inner negation."
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fakt 'really'
Licensed by inner and medial negation, but blocked by outer negation. Fakt functions as a veridical emphasis marker related to VERUM. It's incompatible with outer negation because outer negation is FALSUM — combining VERUM emphasis with FALSUM creates a pragmatic contradiction.
@cite{stankova-2025} (§2.2.3): "fakt is compatible with inner and medial negation but incompatible with outer negation."
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vůbec 'at all'
General NPI, requiring DE licensing. Licensed by inner negation (propositional ¬ is a DE context). Not one of the five Table 1 diagnostics, but an important polarity item in Czech negated PQs.
Cross-linguistic parallel: English at all (Fragments.English.PolarityItems.atAll).
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snad 'perhaps, surely not'
Rhetorical/adversative particle in PQs and statements. Related to the cross-Slavic family of PQ particles including Russian razve, Ukrainian xiba, Belarusian ci, Polish czyż(by), Bulgarian nima, and Czech copak/cožpak (@cite{simik-2024} §4.2.4; @cite{nekula-1996}; @cite{stankova-2023}). Conveys surprise or doubt.
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copak 'what then, RAZVE'
Expresses a conflict between the speaker's prior belief and current contextual evidence (@cite{stankova-2025} §6.2;, @cite{nekula-1996}, @cite{nekula-1996}). Licensed in both positive and negative PQs, but requires a biased context (evidential bias).
Key properties (@cite{stankova-2025} §6.2):
- Context-sensitive: requires biased context (z = 9.372, p < .001)
- In positive PQs: context implies ¬p, speaker believed p → surprise
- In negative PQs: context implies p, speaker believed ¬p → surprise
- Like word order and inner negation, copak is sensitive to contextual evidence
Contrast with náhodou: náhodou is FALSUM-tied (epistemic bias, context-insensitive); copak is evidential-bias-tied (context-sensitive).
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- Fragments.Czech.Particles.lookup form = List.find? (fun (p : Fragments.Czech.Particles.ParticleEntry) => p.form == form) Fragments.Czech.Particles.allParticles
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Whether a particle is compatible with a given negation position,
derived from the licenses function in CzechThreeWayNeg.
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- Fragments.Czech.Particles.compatibleWith p pos = match p.diagnostic with | some diag => Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation.licenses pos diag | none => true
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náhodou uniquely identifies outer negation: it's the only particle that is exclusively compatible with outer (and no other) position.
ještě uniquely identifies inner negation: it's the only particle that is exclusively compatible with inner (and no other) position.
fakt distinguishes inner/medial from outer: it's compatible with both inner and medial, but incompatible with outer. So if fakt is OK but ještě is not, the reading must be medial.
The three Table 1 particles {náhodou, ještě, fakt} together with the NCI/PPI contrast suffice to uniquely identify each negation position. Each position has a unique signature across the three particles.
Corpus data (NahodouCorpusData, InterNPQUseCategory) and use category
distributions are in Phenomena.Negation.CzechThreeWayNeg.Typology §§20–21,
where they live alongside the other empirical data for these papers.
Whether a particle requires evidential bias (biased context) to be felicitous. Based on @cite{stankova-2025} §6:
- náhodou: no — FALSUM-tied, context-insensitive (§6.1)
- copak: yes — requires conflict between prior belief and evidence (§6.2)
- others: not experimentally tested for context sensitivity
Dispatches on ParticleSemantics and diagnostic status rather than surface
form. The evidentialConflict class inherently requires evidential bias.
For orderingSourceModifier, only experimentally tested particles (those
with a Table 1 diagnostic) get a definite classification.
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náhodou and copak have opposite context requirements: náhodou is tied to FALSUM (epistemic bias, context-insensitive), while copak requires evidential bias (context-sensitive). They express different bias dimensions (@cite{stankova-2025} §6).
copak is not a Table 1 diagnostic — it has no direct negation-position licensing constraint. It appears in both positive and negative PQs (@cite{stankova-2025} ex. 19a–b).