A Game Analysis of the Emerging Polarity Sensitivity of Shizhong
This paper investigates the emerging polarity sensitivity of the adverb"shizhong"(always)in the light of game theory to elucidate its usage patterns in specific syntactic environments and its inappropriateness in affirmative discrete event sentences."Shizhong"intensifies illocutionary force by extending the time span,and its emerging polarity sensitivity reflects an optimal strategy for achieving a greater payoff at an additional cost in language games.We begin by reviewing the theoretical research on emerging polarity sensitivity.We then analyze the rationale for"shizhong"being licensed in downward-entailing contexts,habitual sentences,and continuous event sentences,while explaining its unsuitability in certain cases within the framework of signaling game theory.Specifically,we quantitatively assess the utility of"shizhong"in enhancing event probability through the Poisson distribution formula,measure its informational strength using the self-information formula,and examine its preferential selection or rejection across various contexts via game payoff matrices.
emerging polarity sensitivityself-informationPoisson distributionsignaling game
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