---
tag: N238J43XNE
kind: concept
name: Conservativity
sources:
  - wikipedia: en:68498620@r1230062708
    locator: Conservativity
    note: adopted
    mention: wikipedia://en/68498620
    sections: [Summary]
same_as:
  wikidata: Q108365642
  wikipedia: Conservativity
inventory: [R8N1ECGWGN]
---

## Summary

In formal semantics **conservativity** is a proposed linguistic universal which states that any determiner $D$ must obey the equivalence $D(A,B) \leftrightarrow D(A, A\cap B)$. For instance, the English determiner "every" can be seen to be conservative by the [[equivalence|06GYGS41JK]] of the following two sentences, schematized in generalized quantifier notation to the right.