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Linglib.Phenomena.TemporalConnectives.NegationData

Negation × Temporal Connective Interaction Data #

@cite{giannakidou-2002} @cite{greco-2020} @cite{rett-2026} @cite{jin-koenig-2021}

Theory-neutral empirical data on the interaction between negation and temporal connectives, focusing on:

  1. The two-until hypothesis: Greek lexicalizes the distinction between NPI-until (= ¬before) and durative until.

  2. Expletive negation: before-clauses license truth- conditionally vacuous negation cross-linguistically, explained by ambidirectionality.

Key Empirical Generalizations #

Whether a temporal connective entails that the main-clause event actually occurred at the boundary time.

  • entailment: actualization is part of the assertion — cancellation yields contradiction (@cite{giannakidou-2002}, ex. 38).
  • implicature: actualization is a Q-implicature — cancellable (@cite{giannakidou-2002}, ex. 7: "Sure, the princess slept until midnight. In fact she only woke up at 2am.").
  • none: no actualization inference at all (@cite{giannakidou-2002}, ex. 72–73: prin/before is compatible with the complement event never occurring).
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      A judgment about the two-until distinction, encoding @cite{giannakidou-2002}'s cross-linguistic evidence.

      semanticType classifies connectives into three groups:

      • before-type (non-veridical, NPI-licensing, no durative restriction)
      • endpoint-type (veridical, no NPI-licensing, durative restriction)
      • eventive-type (requires anti-veridical trigger, actualization entailment)

      Greek lexicalizes all three: prin (before-type), mexri (endpoint-type), para monon (eventive-type). English collapses eventive and before under the single lexeme until, disambiguated by negation context.

      • language : String

        Language

      • form : String

        Connective form

      • semanticType : String

        Semantic type: "before", "endpoint", or "eventive".

      • moodRestriction : Option String

        Required mood of complement (if applicable)

      • requiresDE : Bool

        Does it require a DE (downward-entailing) licensor?

      • complementVeridical : Bool

        Is the complement veridical?

      • requiresDurativeMain : Bool

        Does it restrict the main clause to durative aspect?

      • licensesNPIs : Bool

        Does it license NPIs in the complement?

      • example_ : String

        Example sentence

      • actualizationStatus : ActualizationStatus

        Does the connective entail actualization of a change-of-state event at the boundary time? This is the central distinction between NPI-until (entailment) and durative until (implicature).

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          Greek prin (πριν): before-type. Requires subjunctive, does not require DE context (unlike English NPI-until or Greek para monon), non-veridical complement, licenses NPIs. No actualization entailment: prin is compatible with the complement event never occurring (@cite{giannakidou-2002}, §6, ex. (72): "I prigipisa dhen eftase prin apo ta mesanixta" — the princess may or may not have arrived). "Efije prin na erthi o Janis." 'She left before Janis came.'

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            Greek mexri (μέχρι): endpoint-type. Requires indicative, veridical complement, requires imperfective/stative main clause, does NOT license NPIs. Actualization is a conversational implicature, not an entailment. "I Maria perimine mexri irthi o Janis." 'Maria waited until Janis came.'

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              English NPI-until: eventive-type (@cite{giannakidou-2002}). Requires DE licensor (negation). Unlike Greek prin, English collapses both types under the single lexeme until, disambiguated by context.

              Classified as "eventive" (not "before") because English NPI-until patterns with Greek para monon on all diagnostics: actualization is an entailment, a DE trigger is required, and there is no durative restriction on the main clause. Karttunen's logical form (NPI-until = ¬before) captures the truth conditions, but the phenomenological classification tracks the same semantic type as para monon.

              "The princess didn't wake up until the prince kissed her."

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                English durative until: endpoint-type. No DE requirement, veridical complement, durative main clause required. "John slept until 3pm."

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                  Greek para monon (παρά μονον, lit. 'but only'): eventive-type. The true NPI-until in Greek — lexically distinct from both mexri (durative until) and prin (before). Requires anti-veridical trigger (negation, 'without'). Entails actualization: the main-clause event occurred at the boundary time. Scalar (introduces a scale of contextually relevant times).

                  @cite{giannakidou-2002}, §3.2: para monon is incompatible with negated perfective eventives (ex. 35: I prigipisa dhen eftase para monon ta mesanixta) but compatible with perfective statives that shift to achievement reading (ex. 37: I prigipisa dhen (apo)kimithike para monon ta mesanixta = 'The princess didn't fall asleep until midnight').

                  Cancellation of actualization yields contradiction (ex. 38): '#I prigipisa dhen eftase para monon ta mesanixta. Dhen eftase kan ekino to vradi.' ('#The princess didn't arrive until midnight. She didn't even arrive that night.')

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                    The mood diagnostic: NPI-until type takes subjunctive (in languages with the distinction); durative until takes indicative.

                    The veridicality diagnostic: NPI-until is non-veridical; durative until is veridical.

                    The aspect diagnostic: durative until requires durative main clause; NPI-until has no such restriction.

                    The NPI licensing diagnostic: NPI-until (= ¬before) licenses NPIs; durative until does not.

                    Para monon requires an anti-veridical trigger (negation, 'without'); mexri does not; prin does not. This distinguishes eventive-type from both endpoint-type and before-type.

                    Para monon differs from prin on actualization: prin/before has no actualization, para monon entails it. This is the paper's central finding — NPI-untilbefore on actualization status (@cite{giannakidou-2002}, §6).

                    An attested instance of expletive negation (EN) in a temporal clause. EN is truth-conditionally vacuous: the sentence has the same truth conditions with or without the negative marker.

                    • language : String

                      Language

                    • connective : String

                      Temporal connective hosting EN

                    • formWithEN : String

                      Surface form with EN

                    • formWithoutEN : String

                      Surface form without EN (same truth conditions)

                    • obligatory : Bool

                      Is EN obligatory in this context?

                    • mannerImplicature : Bool

                      Does EN trigger a manner implicature ("much before")?

                    • example_ : String

                      Example sentence

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                        Italian prima che non — EN in before-clause. "Mario è partito prima che non arrivasse Gianni." 'Mario left before Gianni arrived.' EN is optional; triggers "well before" reading.

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                          Italian finché non — EN in until-clause. "Maria ha aspettato finché non è arrivato Gianni." 'Maria waited until Gianni arrived.' EN is often felt as obligatory in colloquial Italian.

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                            French avant que ne — EN in before-clause. "Jean est parti avant que Marie ne soit arrivée." 'Jean left before Marie arrived.' Historically obligatory in formal registers; now optional.

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                              Note: The ambidirectionality↔EN correspondence formalized here is also verified (more comprehensively) in Phenomena.Negation.Studies.Rett2026.rett_generalization over the ENConstruction enum, which covers all six construction types. The ENDistribution entries below provide the same generalization over a subset (temporal connectives only).

                              EN is attested with before and until but NOT with after or when. This follows from ambidirectionality: before is ambidirectional (negating the complement doesn't change truth conditions), so EN is vacuous. After is NOT ambidirectional, so EN would change truth conditions (genuine negation, not expletive).

                              • connective : String

                                Connective

                              • enAttested : Bool

                                Is EN attested cross-linguistically?

                              • ambidirectional : Bool

                                Is the connective ambidirectional?

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                                          EN is attested iff the connective is ambidirectional. This is the core empirical generalization: EN is licensed exactly in those environments where negation is truth-conditionally vacuous.

                                          EN survey data (722 languages, 74 with EN, 37 genera) is defined in Phenomena.Negation.Typology.enSurvey to avoid duplication.