Czech Three-Way Negation in Polar Questions #
@cite{stankova-2025} @cite{zeijlstra-2004} @cite{romero-2024}
Core empirical data for Staňková (2026), who proposes that negation in Czech occupies three distinct LF positions in polar questions:
| Position | LF site | Scope | ne- > PPI | NCI | náhodou | ještě | fakt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| inner | TP | narrow | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| medial | ModP | wide | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| outer | PolP | widest | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
The three readings differ in (i) licensing conditions on polarity/concord items, (ii) compatibility with particles náhodou 'by chance', ještě 'yet', fakt 'really', (iii) scope relative to the evidential bias modal □_ev, and (iv) syntactic/prosodic encoding (word order and focus).
Module Structure #
This file contains per-cell verification theorems and scope generalizations.
The core types (NegPosition, Diagnostic, licenses) are in
Theories.Semantics.Negation.CzechNegation. Cross-linguistic bridges to
@cite{romero-2024}, @cite{simik-2024}, verb position, and bias profiles are in
CzechThreeWayNeg.Typology.
Each cell of Table 1 gets its own theorem. Changing any single entry in
licenses breaks exactly one theorem — maximum interconnection density.
The Boolean signature of a negation position across all five diagnostics.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Each negation position has a unique diagnostic signature. This is the empirical basis for the three-way distinction.
The three positions exhaust all negation readings in Czech PQs.
Only inner negation licenses NCIs — because only inner negation is in the scope domain of the Agree relation. NCIs must be c-commanded by ¬ at LF. Medial and outer negation are too high.
Only outer negation licenses náhodou — because náhodou modifies the ordering source of the epistemic possibility contributed by FALSUM, including less stereotypical worlds (Staňková §2.2.1).
Inner negation does not outscope PPIs — PPIs like nějaký must outscope ¬, but inner negation has narrow scope (within TP). So PPIs in the scope of inner negation yield infelicity.
Both medial and outer license PPIs outscoping negation.