{"id":11577,"date":"2018-10-22T06:05:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T10:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whamit.mit.edu\/?p=11577"},"modified":"2018-10-21T22:29:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T02:29:25","slug":"lf-reading-group-1024-shumian-ye-peking-universitymit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/2018\/10\/22\/lf-reading-group-1024-shumian-ye-peking-universitymit\/","title":{"rendered":"LF Reading Group 10\/24 - Shumian Ye (Peking University\/MIT)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Speaker:<\/strong> Shumian Ye (Peking University\/MIT)<br clear='none'\/>\n <strong>Title:<\/strong> Question bias, monopolarity, and presupposition<br clear='none'\/>\n <strong>Date and time:<\/strong> Wednesday, October 24th, 1-2 pm<br clear='none'\/>\n <strong>Location:<\/strong> 32-D461<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mandarin Chinese features diverse types of polar questions (A-not-A questions, <em>ma<\/em>-questions, <em>ba<\/em>-questions, intonation questions, etc.), and some polarity words (e.g. <em>dui<\/em>, <em>meicuo<\/em>, <em>shide<\/em>) exclusively used to answer biased questions. By using these polarity answers as a test for question bias, I will make the generalization that the monopolarity of IP domain is necessary for biased polar questions, whereas the bipolarity of IP domain is sufficient for neutral polar questions. Biased A-not-A questions, such as <em>shi-bu-shi<\/em> questions shown by (1), are argued to be C-neg-C questions in line with our generalization. (cf. Schaffar &amp; Chen 2001)<\/p>\n<p>(1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Q: Ni\u00a0 \u00a0 shi-bu-shi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0xihuan\u00a0\u00a0 yuyongxue?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A: dui.\/meicuo.\/shide.<br clear='none'\/>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you\u00a0 \u00a0SHI-not-SHI\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 like\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pragmatics\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0right<br clear='none'\/>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u0091You like pragmatics, right?\u0092\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u0091Yes, you are right.\u0092<\/p>\n<p>I will derive the epistemic bias of <em>shi-bu-shi<\/em> questions by adopting Krifka\u0092s (2017) analysis of outer\/high negative polar questions in English. I propose that <em>shi<\/em> is an affirmative operator presupposing that the addressee believes the prejacent proposition is true, and <em>bu <\/em>is interpreted as a denial operator (~) instead of a negator (\u00ac). That is, <em>shi-bu-shi<\/em> questions present two equal answer options \u0096 affirming <em>?<\/em> and denying <em>?<\/em> \u0096 both answers presuppose the addressee\u0092s (i.e. the questioner\u0092s) belief that <em>?<\/em> is true.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond <em>shi-bu-shi<\/em> questions, I will also discuss biased <em>ma<\/em>-questions like (2), to see whether we can derive the bias in such case by conveniently analyzing the question particle <em>ma <\/em>as a denial operator.<\/p>\n<p>(2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Q: Ni\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 zhi\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 xihuan\u00a0\u00a0 yuyongxue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ma?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A: dui.\/meicuo.\/shide.<br clear='none'\/>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you\u00a0 \u00a0 ONLY\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0like\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 pragmatics\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Q\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0right<br clear='none'\/>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u0091You only like pragmatics, right?\u0092\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u0091Yes, you are right.\u0092<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaker: Shumian Ye (Peking University\/MIT) Title: Question bias, monopolarity, and presupposition Date and time: Wednesday, October 24th, 1-2 pm Location: 32-D461 Abstract: Mandarin Chinese features diverse types of polar questions (A-not-A questions, ma-questions, ba-questions, intonation questions, etc.), and some polarity words (e.g. dui, meicuo, shide) exclusively used to answer biased questions. By using these polarity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11577"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11601,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577\/revisions\/11601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}