Polarity Shift in the “bù ‘not’ + Adj./Verb” Construction

Nan Li; Weidong Zhan

doi:10.1007/978-981-96-3509-2_25

Polarity Shift in the “bù ‘not’ + Adj./Verb” Construction

Nan Li^*
, Weidong Zhan

^*Corresponding author for this work

Sub Natural Language Processing

Peking University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

This paper examines polarity shift in the “不 bù ‘not’ + adj./verb” construction in Chinese. Through quantitative analysis, we demonstrate the widespread occurrence of this phenomenon. By categorizing and analyzing gradable adjectives and psychological verbs, we identify four key conditions for polarity shift within this construction: (1) the adjective or verb belongs to a pair of words with opposing polarities (“adj. - ∼adj.”/“verb - ∼verb”); (2) the meaning of “不 bù ‘not’ + adj./verb” is equivalent to its antonymic counterpart, “∼adj.”/“∼verb”; (3) the adjective or verb exhibits subjective emotional bias; and (4) an intermediate zone exists between “adj.”/“verb” and “∼adj.”/“∼verb”. We conclude by discussing potential explanations for this phenomenon, including challenges in applying degree semantics to account for polarity shift.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Chinese Lexical Semantics - 25th Workshop, CLSW 2024, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Peng Jin, Qi Su, Jia-Fei Hong
Publisher	Springer
Pages	340-354
Number of pages	15
ISBN (Electronic)	978-981-96-3509-2
ISBN (Print)	978-981-96-3508-5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3509-2_25
Publication status	Published - 27 Mar 2025
Event	25th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2024 - Xiamen, China Duration: 31 May 2024 → 2 Jun 2024

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Volume	15552 LNAI
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	25th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2024
Country/Territory	China
City	Xiamen
Period	31/05/24 → 2/06/24

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.

Keywords

Degree semantics
Gradable adjectives
Negation
Polarity
Psychological verbs

Access to Document

10.1007/978-981-96-3509-2_25

978-981-96-3509-2_25Final published version, 1.55 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

@inproceedings{06b85519228f4bbd827204a3dd0fc4dc,

title = "Polarity Shift in the “b{\`u} {\textquoteleft}not{\textquoteright} + Adj./Verb” Construction",

abstract = "This paper examines polarity shift in the “不 b{\`u} {\textquoteleft}not{\textquoteright} + adj./verb” construction in Chinese. Through quantitative analysis, we demonstrate the widespread occurrence of this phenomenon. By categorizing and analyzing gradable adjectives and psychological verbs, we identify four key conditions for polarity shift within this construction: (1) the adjective or verb belongs to a pair of words with opposing polarities (“adj. - ∼adj.”/“verb - ∼verb”); (2) the meaning of “不 b{\`u} {\textquoteleft}not{\textquoteright} + adj./verb” is equivalent to its antonymic counterpart, “∼adj.”/“∼verb”; (3) the adjective or verb exhibits subjective emotional bias; and (4) an intermediate zone exists between “adj.”/“verb” and “∼adj.”/“∼verb”. We conclude by discussing potential explanations for this phenomenon, including challenges in applying degree semantics to account for polarity shift.",

keywords = "Degree semantics, Gradable adjectives, Negation, Polarity, Psychological verbs",

author = "Nan Li and Weidong Zhan",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.; 25th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2024 ; Conference date: 31-05-2024 Through 02-06-2024",

year = "2025",

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Li, N & Zhan, W 2025, Polarity Shift in the “bù ‘not’ + Adj./Verb” Construction. in P Jin, Q Su & J-F Hong (eds), Chinese Lexical Semantics - 25th Workshop, CLSW 2024, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 15552 LNAI, Springer, pp. 340-354, 25th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2024, Xiamen, China, 31/05/24. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3509-2_25

Polarity Shift in the “bù ‘not’ + Adj./Verb” Construction. / Li, Nan; Zhan, Weidong.
Chinese Lexical Semantics - 25th Workshop, CLSW 2024, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Peng Jin; Qi Su; Jia-Fei Hong. Springer, 2025. p. 340-354 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 15552 LNAI).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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