Abstract Negative existentials containing empty NPs are understood colloquially as representing how things stand in the world. Moreover, utterances of such sentences seem to express propositions or thoughts that are informative and true. Standard static semantic theories cannot provide a straightforward account of these intuitive phenomena. In such frameworks, sentences with empty NPs are considered as being unable to express truth-evaluable contents. This paper investigates two alternative theories of negative existentials. A common feature of these theories is that they adopt a dynamic approach to meaning. I will argue that neither of these alternatives provides a reassuring solution to the apparent truth-conditional problem generated by the utterances of negative existentials.

中文翻译：

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否定存在

摘要包含空NP的负性存在物被通俗地理解为代表事物在世界上的地位。而且，这些句子的话语似乎表达了内容丰富且真实的命题或思想。标准静态语义理论不能直接说明这些直观现象。在这样的框架中，具有空NP的句子被认为无法表达可评估真值的内容。本文研究了两种否定的存在性理论。这些理论的共同特征是它们采用动态方法来表达意义。我将争辩说，这些替代方法都不能为由否定存在的话语所产生的表面上的真条件问题提供令人放心的解决方案。