Negative polarity Kimse and free choice Bir Kimse :|a unified semantic analysis

Abstract

The goal of the present dissertation is a semantic study of the Turkish expression Kimse and; specifically, a unified analysis of two apparently distinct Polarity Sensitive Items, namely Negative Polarity and Free Choice Kimse. I show that Kimse is a “Polarity Sensitive” (PS) item with a dual nature. Specifically, I observe that bare Kimse acts like a Negative Polarity Item (NPI) but Kimse preceded by the indefinite determiner Bir ‘a(n)’ is an existential Free Choice (∃-FC) Item. In his analysis of similar phenomena, Chierchia (2013) argues that NPIs and FCIs must belong to a linguistically uniform class and, for that matter, fairly widespread class and proposes a unified analysis of Free choice and Negative Polarity in a variety of Germanic and Romance languages as well as some Slavic ones, namely an Alternative and Exhaustification-based Approach (AEA henceforth). Extending this theory to the dual nature of Kimse, I provide additional support to the idea that Polarity Sensitivity and Free Choice phenomena are related.