NPI licensing and the logic of the syntax-semantics interface

In this paper, we propose an explicit syntax-semantics interface of NPI licensing in Hybrid TLG. Hybrid TLG is a version of categorial grammar that inherits properties of both lexicalist and derivational variants of generative grammar, and it has been shown in our previous research (summarized in Kubota and Levine 2020) that it offers elegant analyses for a number of complex phenomena at the interface of syntax and semantics (especially in the domains of coordination and ellipsis) that turn out to be highly problematic for other grammatical theories. In the present paper, we extend our work to NPI licensing and report on some initial results suggesting that the flexible and systematic architecture of Hybrid TLG turns out to be successful in this domain too. Specifically, our approach captures interactions between NPI licensing (or polarity sensitivity) and other complex phenomena at the syntax-semantics interface including the scopal properties of modal auxiliaries, Gapping, and VP fronting.