Polarity particles revisited

Claus et al. (2017) present novel experimental evidence concerning polarity particle responses in German, and discuss the challenges these findings raise for three approaches to such responses, namely the saliency approach of Krifka (20130, the feature model of Roelofsen and Farkas (2015), and the ellipsis approaches of Kramer and Rawlins (2012), and Holmberg (2016). The authors then sketch a way to account for the data within the feature model, as well as a revised version of the saliency account.

The first goal of this paper is to work out in full detail an account of the new German data in the feature model. In the process, we will clarify and better articulate those aspects of the feature model that are responsible for how preference patterns are to be explained. Our second goal is to deepen the comparison between this model and the saliency approach by taking a wider cross-linguistic perspective.