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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=IT link=blue vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Dear Ian, dear typologists,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>in Italian <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>‘Assolutamente’ (absolutely)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>is currently used both as a positive and a negative answer to polar questions, as well as to express confirmation/agreement/consent or disagreement/denial to a statement or invitation. This usage is registered for example in the online Treccani dictionary at this link <a href="http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/assolutamente"><span style='color:windowtext'>http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/assolutamente</span></a>, which suggests that, in order to avoid misunderstandings, the use of an explicit answer, i.e. with yes or no (‘assolutamente sì/no’), is preferable.</span><span style='mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>1</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'> This is an echo of a widespread proscription.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>An answer with ‘Assolutamente’ is generally not a simple yes or no answer, but this “special semantics”, as has been termed, holds for both yes and no. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>I have a feeling that younger speakers tend to use this form more frequently as a positive answer, as I think with English ‘Absolutely’, but I have no data and cannot prove it. Also, I have a feeling that head movements (meant as gestures </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Wingdings;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>J</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>) conventionally used for yes vs. no may frequently accompany these answers but I have no evidence whatever. Neither do I have evidence concerning diverging intonation or vowel length or something else which regularly or frequently correlates with yes but not no or viceversa. What I can say as a native speaker is that ‘Assolutamente’ frequently makes me a puzzled addressee, but my puzzling ends in a few seconds (rough measure), usually thanks to what I then hear or see.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>This case confirms the hypotheses laid down by Maia Ponsonnet about the diachronic sources of this kind of polysemy, but shows that both negative and affirmative markers can be elided. I would suggest that the phoric anchoring typical of responsives or other expressions has a bearing on the emergence of this kind of polysemy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Elisa<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>1</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#3E3F3E;background:#FAF9F6'>Nelle risposte, è com. l’uso di <em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>assolutamente</span></em> da solo, non seguito da <em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>sì</span></em> o <em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>no</span></em>, ma è preferibile, per non generare equivoci, ricorrere sempre alla formula più esplicita: <em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Siete d’accordo? Assolutamente sì</span></em>. <em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Sei stanco? Assolutamente no</span></em>.</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Elisa Roma, PhD<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>General and Celtic Linguistics<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Università di Pavia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Italia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><a href="mailto:elisa.roma@unipv.it"><span style='color:#0563C1'>elisa.roma@unipv.it</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b>Da:</b> Lingtyp [mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org] <b>Per conto di </b>Joo Ian<br><b>Inviato:</b> giovedì 31 maggio 2018 12.57<br><b>A:</b> lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org<br><b>Oggetto:</b> [Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I would like to know if the following universal claim holds:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span lang=EN-US>There exists no lexeme that can mean X and the negation of X. (For example, no lexeme can express “to go” and “to not go”).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I wonder if such “bipolar polysemy” exists in any lexeme, because I cannot think of any, and whether this claim is truly universal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I would appreciate to know if there is any counter-evidence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>From Hong Kong,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Ian Joo<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><a href="http://ianjoo.academia.edu">http://ianjoo.academia.edu</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>