ABSTRACT
Studies of polarity items have traditionally fallen into two major theoretical camps: the downward entailment approach, and the non-veridicality approach. An important generalization can be drawn about the different patterns of behavior between these two groups of polarity items: all the environments that license non-interrogative shenme and na-CL constructions also license renhe as a polarity item, but not vice versa. This chapter argues that the behavioral asymmetry reflects the fact that, in contrast with the wh-polarity items shenme and na-CL, the distribution of renhe is much wider — it can be licensed by human necessity and possibility, in addition to conditional necessity. It presents a thorough comparison among these three kinds of polarity items in Mandarin Chinese, identifying a further difference between renhe and the wh-polarity items. The chapter argues that the difference between na-CL and shenme is caused by the fact that the former is a D-linking element, while the latter is not.
