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In
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, veridicality (from Latin "truthfully said") is a
semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
or grammatical assertion of the truth of an utterance.


Definition

Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster, Inc. is an American company that publishes reference books and is especially known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States. In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as ...
defines "veridical" as truthful, veracious and non illusory. It stems from the Latin "veridicus", composed of Latin ''verus'', meaning "true", and ''dicere'', which means "to say". For example, the statement "Paul saw a snake" asserts the truthfulness of the claim, while "Paul ''did'' see a snake" is an even stronger assertion. The formal definition of veridicality views the context as a
propositional operator In logic, a logical connective (also called a logical operator, sentential connective, or sentential operator) is a logical constant. They can be used to connect logical formulas. For instance in the syntax of propositional logic, the binary c ...
(Giannakidou 1998). # A propositional operator ''F'' is veridical
iff In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (shortened as "iff") is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false. The connective is bicon ...
''Fp'' entails ''p'', that is, ''Fp'' → ''p''; otherwise ''F'' is nonveridical. # Additionally, a nonveridical operator ''F'' is antiveridical iff ''Fp'' entails ''not p'', that is, ''Fp'' → ¬''p''. For temporal and aspectual operators, the definition of veridicality is somewhat more complex: * For operators relative to instants of time: Let ''F'' be a temporal or aspectual operator, and ''t'' an instant of time. *# ''F'' is veridical iff for ''Fp'' to be true at time ''t'', ''p'' must be true at a (contextually relevant) time ''t′'' ≤ ''t''; otherwise ''F'' is nonveridical. *# A nonveridical operator ''F'' is antiveridical iff for ''Fp'' to be true at time ''t'', ¬''p'' must be true at a (contextually relevant) time ''t′'' ≤ ''t''. * For operators relative to intervals of time: Let ''F'' be a temporal or aspectual operator, and ''t'' an interval of time. *# ''F'' is veridical iff for ''Fp'' to be true of ''t'', ''p'' must be true of all (contextually relevant) ''t′'' ⊆ ''t''; otherwise ''F'' is nonveridical. *# A nonveridical operator ''F'' is antiveridical iff for ''Fp'' to be true of ''t'', ¬''p'' must be true of all (contextually relevant) ''t′'' ⊆ ''t''.


Nonveridical operators

• Samuel S. Fentress
Negation In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...
is veridical, though of opposite
polarity Polarity may refer to: Science *Electrical polarity, direction of electrical current *Polarity (mutual inductance), the relationship between components such as transformer windings * Polarity (projective geometry), in mathematics, a duality of ord ...
, sometimes called ''antiveridical'': "Paul didn't see a snake" asserts that the statement "Paul saw a snake" is false. In English, non-indicative moods or
irrealis moods In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. Every ...
are frequently used in a nonveridical sense: "Paul may have seen a snake" and "Paul would have seen a snake" do not assert that Paul actually saw a snake and the second implies that he did not. "Paul would indeed have seen a snake" is veridical, and some languages have separate veridical
conditional mood The conditional mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual. It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
s for such cases. Nonveridicality has been proposed to be behind the licensing of
polarity item In linguistics, a polarity item is a lexical item that is associated with affirmation or negation. An affirmation is a positive polarity item, abbreviated PPI or AFF. A negation is a negative polarity item, abbreviated NPI or NEG. The linguistic ...
s such as the English words ''any'' and ''ever,'' as an alternative to the influential downward entailment theory (see below) proposed by Ladusaw (1980).
Anastasia Giannakidou Anastasia Giannakidou is a professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago. She is co-director of Center for Gesture, Sign and Language at the University of Chicago, along with Diane Brentari and Susan Goldin-Meadow. She is best known fo ...
(1998) argued that various polarity phenomena observed in language are manifestations of the dependency of polarity items to the (non)veridicality of the context of appearance. The (non)veridical dependency may be positive (licensing), or negative (anti-licensing), and arises from the sensitivity semantics of polarity items. Across languages, different polarity items may show sensitivity to veridicality, anti-veridicality, or non-veridicality. Nonveridical operators typically license the use of ''polarity items'', which in veridical contexts normally is ungrammatical: : * Mary saw ''any'' students. (The context is veridical.) : Mary didn't see ''any'' students. (The context is nonveridical.)


Downward entailment

All downward entailing contexts are nonveridical. Because of this, theories based on nonveridicality can be seen as extending those based on downward entailment, allowing more cases of polarity item licensing to be explained. Downward entailment predicts that polarity items will be licensed in the scope of
negation In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...
, downward entailing quantifiers like ''few N'', ''at most n N'', ''no N'', and the restriction of ''every'': : No students saw ''anything''. : Mary didn't see ''anything''. : Few children saw ''anything''. : Every student who saw ''anything'' should report to the police.


Non-monotone quantifiers

Quantifiers like ''exactly three students'', ''nobody but John'', and ''almost nobody'' are non-monotone (and thus not downward entailing) but nevertheless admit ''any'': : % Exactly three students saw ''anything''. : Nobody but Mary saw ''anything''. : Almost nobody saw ''anything''.


''Hardly'' and ''barely''

''Hardly'' and ''barely'' allow for ''any'' despite not being downward entailing. : Mary hardly talked to ''anybody''. (Does not entail "Mary hardly talked to her mother".) : Mary barely studied ''anything''. (Does not entail "Mary barely studied linguistics".)


Questions

Polarity items are quite frequent in
question A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammar, grammatical forms typically used to express them. Rhetorical questions, for instance, are inte ...
s, although questions are not monotone. : Did you see ''anything''? Although questions biased towards the negative answer, such as "Do you
ven Ven may refer to: Places * Ven, Heeze-Leende, a hamlet in the Netherlands * Ven (Sweden), an island * Ven, Tajikistan, a town * VEN or Venezuela Other uses * von Economo neurons, also called ''spindle neurons'' * '' Vên'', an EP by Eluveiti ...
/nowiki> give a damn about any books?" ( tag questions based on negative sentences exhibit even more such bias), can sometimes be seen as downward entailing, this approach cannot account for the general case, such as the above example where the context is perfectly neutral. Neither can it explain why
negative question A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammatical forms typically used to express them. Rhetorical questions, for instance, are interrogat ...
s, which naturally tend to be biased, don't license negative polarity items. In semantics which treats a question as the set of its true answers, the
denotation In linguistics and philosophy, the denotation of an expression is its literal meaning. For instance, the English word "warm" denotes the property of being warm. Denotation is contrasted with other aspects of meaning including connotation. For inst ...
of a polar question contains two possible answers: :
Did you see Mary? Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...
= Because
disjunction In logic, disjunction is a logical connective typically notated as \lor and read aloud as "or". For instance, the English language sentence "it is raining or it is snowing" can be represented in logic using the disjunctive formula R \lor S ...
''p'' ∨ ''q'' entails neither ''p'' nor ''q'', the context is nonveridical, which explains the admittance of ''any''.


Future

Polarity items appear in
future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
sentences. : Mary will buy ''any'' bottle of wine. : The children will leave as soon as they discover ''anything''. According to the formal definition of veridicality for temporal operators, future is nonveridical: that "John will buy a bottle of Merlot" is true ''now'' does not entail that "John buys a bottle of Merlot" is true at any instant up to and including ''now''. On the other hand,
past The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience t ...
is veridical: that "John bought a bottle of Merlot" is true ''now'' entails that there is an instant preceding ''now'' at which "John buys a bottle of Merlot" is true.


Habitual aspect

Likewise, nonveridicality of the
habitual aspect In linguistics, the aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in a given action, event, or state. As its name suggests, the habitual aspect (abbreviated ), not to be confused with iterative aspect ...
licenses polarity items. : He usually reads ''any'' book very carefully. The habitual aspect is nonveridical because e.g., that "He is usually cheerful" is true over some interval of time does not entail that "He is cheerful" is true over every subinterval of that. This is in contrast to e.g., the
progressive aspect The continuous and progressive aspects (abbreviated and ) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. In the grammars of many l ...
, which is veridical and prohibits negative polarity items.


Generic sentences

Non-monotone generic sentences accept polarity items. : ''Any'' cat hunts mice.


Modal verbs

Modal verb A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
s create generally good environments for polarity items: : Mary may talk to ''anybody''. : ''Any'' minors must be accompanied by their parents. : The committee can give the job to ''any'' candidate. Such contexts are nonveridical despite being non-monotone and sometimes even upward entailing ("Mary must tango" entails "Mary must dance").


Imperatives

Imperatives are roughly parallel to modal verbs and intensional contexts in general. : Take ''any'' apple. (cf. "You may/must take ''any'' apple", "I want you to take ''any'' apple".)


Protasis of conditionals

Protasis In drama, a protasis is the introductory part of a play, usually its first act. The term was coined by the fourth-century Roman grammarian Aelius Donatus. He defined a play as being made up of three separate parts, the other two being epitasis and ...
of
conditionals Conditional (if then) may refer to: *Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y *Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred *Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a co ...
is one of the most common environments for polarity items. : If you sleep with ''anybody'', I'll kill you.


Directive intensional verbs

Polarity items are licensed with directive
propositional attitude A propositional attitude is a mental state held by an agent toward a proposition. Linguistically, propositional attitudes are denoted by a verb (e.g. "believed") governing an embedded "that" clause, for example, 'Sally believed that she had won ...
s but not with
epistemic Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...
ones. : Mary would like to invite ''any'' student. : Mary asked us to invite ''any'' student. : * Mary believes that we invited ''any'' student. : * Mary dreamt that we invited ''any'' student.


References

* * * {{Formal semantics Grammar Inference Semantics Truth Formal semantics (natural language)