scholarly journals Double Negation in a Negative Concord language: An experimental investigation

Lingua ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 75-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviane Déprez ◽  
Susagna Tubau ◽  
Anne Cheylus ◽  
M. Teresa Espinal
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation

scholarly journals How speakers interpret the negative markers no and no…pas in Catalan

Probus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susagna Tubau ◽  
Viviane Déprez ◽  
Joan Borràs-Comes ◽  
M.Teresa Espinal
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Metalinguistic Negation ◽  
The Status

AbstractThis paper reports the results of an experimental investigation designed to test the interpretation of the optional doubling of the negative markersnoandpasin Expletive Negation (EN) contexts and in preverbal Negative Concord Items (NCI) contexts in Catalan. We show that in EN contexts a negative interpretation ofnois preferred to an expletive one, with non-negative readings being less widespread than expected from what is described in traditional grammars. In NCI contexts the overt presence ofnobasically contributes to a single negation interpretation, thus confirming the status of Catalan as a Negative Concord language. We also show that, in the absence of discourse environments,pasin both EN and NCI contexts shows a variable interpretation, a characteristic of negative polarity items. Our results indicate thatpasdoes not increase the amount of negative interpretation ofnoin EN contexts, or of double negation in NCI contexts, but is an item dependent on the interpretation ofno. We conclude that the strengthening role of Catalanpas(at stage two of Jespersen’s cycle), while associated with the expression of metalinguistic negation, does not reverse the truth or falsity of a proposition.

On the Subject of Negative Auxiliary Inversion

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette ◽  
Chris Collins
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
West Texas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scope Freezing

AbstractThis article presents a novel analysis ofNegative Auxiliary Inversion(NAI) constructions such asdidn't many people eat, in which a negated auxiliary appears in pre-subject position. NAI, found in varieties including Appalachian, African American, and West Texas English, has a word order identical to a yes/no question, but is pronounced and interpreted as a declarative. We propose that NAI subjects are negative DPs, and that the negation raises from the subject DP to adjoin to Fin (a functional head in the left periphery). Three properties of NAI motivate this analysis: (i) scope freezing effects, (ii) the various possible and impossible NAI subject types, and (iii) the incompatibility of NAI constructions with true Double-Negation interpretations. Implications for theories of Negative Concord, Negative Polarity Items, and the representation of negation are discussed.

scholarly journals Fragment answers and double negation in strict negative concord languages

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anamaria Fălăuș ◽  
Andreea Nicolae
Keyword(s):  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Polarity Item ◽  
Polarity Sensitivity ◽  
Fragment Answers ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Two Parameters ◽  
Polarity Sensitive ◽  
Shed Light

This paper revisits the phenomenon of negative concord (NC) as an instance of polarity sensitivity. We shed light on a new set of data regarding n-words as fragment answers to negative questions and show that we find unexpected double negation (DN) readings for fragment n-words in view of their behavior in non-elliptical constructions. To account for this pattern, we offer an updated version of the hypothesis that n-words are strong NPIs, making use of an alternative and exhaustification approach. We argue that the difference between n-words and other NPIs should be seen as the result of two parameters: (i) whether reconstruction of the polarity item is allowed, and (ii) whether the polarity item has the ability to license a covert negation operator. The result is an explanatory account of NC and DN readings in both non-elliptical and elliptical environments, which allows for an easier integration of n-words in the broader typology of polarity sensitive items. 

Negative Concord in Child African American English

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 212-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
D'Jaris Coles-White
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
American English ◽  
Clinical Importance ◽  
African American English ◽  
Double Negative ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Cross Sectional

In this study, African American English (AAE)-speaking children's comprehension of 2 different types of double negative sentences was examined and contrasted with that of a comparison group of Standard American English (SAE)-speaking children. The first type of double negative, negative concord, involves 2 negative elements in a sentence that are interpreted together as single negation. The second type of double negative, called true double negation, involves 2 negatives that are interpreted as independent negatives. A cross-sectional cohort of 61 (35 AAE, 26 SAE) typically developing children ranging in age from 5;2 (years;months) to 7;11 participated. The children responded to story-based grammatical judgment tasks that required them to differentiate between negative concord and true double negation. Results revealed no statistically significant differences between AAE- and SAE-speaking children in the way they interpreted negative concord and true double negation. However, there were significantly more correct responses to negative concord sentences across combined groups. In particular, the older children (i.e., 7-year-olds) produced more correct responses to negative concord than did the younger group (i.e., 5-year-olds). Explanations for these findings are framed in terms of children's knowledge about sentences with 2 negatives, the constraints affecting the interpretation of 2 negatives that include negative concord, and the clinical importance of negative concord for assessing specific language impairment in child AAE speakers.

scholarly journals Cyclic changes to the negative coordinating conjunction from Latin to Modern French

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (s42-s2) ◽  
pp. 223-254
Author(s):  
Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Circular Path ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Cyclic Changes ◽  
Negative System ◽  
Made In ◽  
Modern Standard

Abstract The evolution of the negative coordinating conjunction (‘neither’/‘nor’) from Latin to Modern French instantiates a type of cyclic development that is previously undocumented as such at the level of morphosyntax, viz. a ‘semasiological’ cycle. In effect, the conjunction appears to have taken an almost perfectly circular path. Thus, in Classical Latin, as is consonant with the typological status of that language as a Double Negation language, neque/nec was exclusively used in negative contexts. Medieval French being a Negative Concord language, on the other hand, its negative coordinating conjunction, ne, a direct descendant of neque/nec, was able to develop a full range of weak negative polarity uses. In a range of contexts, ne was thus semantically equivalent to either the additive conjunction et (‘and’) or the disjunction ou (‘or’). By the end of the Classical French period, however, the conjunction (which by then takes the form ny/ni) has lost all of its weak negative polarity uses again, and it is used only in strong negatively polar environments in Modern Standard French. Based on data from the electronic corpora Frantext and Base de Français Médiéval, I analyze the three stages of this evolution. I show that, together with other developments in the French negative system, it falsifies predictions made in the literature and has consequences for the reconstruction of negative systems in less well-documented languages.

scholarly journals Negative concord in Romanian as polyadic quantification

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianina Iordăchioaia ◽  
Frank Richter
Keyword(s):  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Higher Order Logic ◽  
Logical Language ◽  
Lexical Resource ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Polyadic Quantification ◽  
Negative Quantifiers ◽  
Resource Semantics ◽  
General Semantic

In this paper we develop an HPSG syntax-semantics of negative concord in Romanian. We show that n-words in Romanian can best be treated as negative quantifiers which may combine by resumption to form polyadic negative quantifiers. Optionality of resumption explains the existence of simple sentential negation readings alongside double negation readings. We solve the well-known problem of defining general semantic composition rules for translations of natural language expressions in a logical language with polyadic quantifiers by integrating our higher-order logic in Lexical Resource Semantics, whose constraint-based composition mechanisms directly support a systematic syntax-semantics for negative concord with polyadic quantification.

scholarly journals English negative concord and double negation: The division of labor between syntax and pragmatics

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette ◽  
Marianna Nadeu ◽  
Jeremy Yeaton ◽  
Viviane Deprez
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation

Recent research demonstrates that prototypical negative concord (NC) languages allow double negation (DN) (Espinal & Prieto 2011; Prieto et al. 2013; Déprez et al. 2015; Espinal et al. 2016). In NC, two or more syntactic negations yield a single semantic one (e.g., the ‘I ate nothing’ reading of “I didn’t eat nothing”), and in DN each negation contributes to the semantics (e.g. ‘It is not the case that I ate nothing’). That NC and DN have been shown to coexist calls into question the hypothesis that grammars are either NC or DN (Zeijlstra 2004), and supports micro-parametric views of these phenomena (Déprez 2011; Blanchette 2017). Our study informs this debate with new experimental data from American English. We explore the role of syntax and speaker intent in shaping the perception and interpretation of English sentences with two negatives. Our results demonstrate that, like in prototypical NC languages (Espinal et al. 2016), English speakers reliably exploit syntactic, pragmatic, and acoustic cues to in selecting an NC or a DN interpretation.

Licensing Negative Concord Items

2021 ◽  
pp. 107-170
Author(s):  
Ahmad Alqassas
Keyword(s):  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Negative Adverb

This chapter discusses the syntactic configurations and processes that are involved in licensing the various types of NCIs (negative concord items) in Arabic. The author argues for a revised syntactic agreement approach. In this way, the chapter explains the behavior of Arabic NCIs with extra mechanisms (positing an abstract negative operator) to explain non-strict NCIs by conceptualizing a revised inventory of abstract negation features that the various types of Arabic NCIs carry, thus partially building on and departing from analyses for Germanic languages. The coordinators laa-wala ‘neither-nor’ are conspicuous analogues of the NCI wala, which can combine with NPs to create person-NCIs such as wala-ħada ‘no body,’ in their ability to co-occur with the negative adverb maʕumrhiš ‘never’ in the CP (complementizer phrase) layers without triggering a double negation reading. A covert negative operator licenses the coordinators laa-wala as a last resort in the absence of overt licensors.

French negation, the Superset Principle, and Feature Conservation

2019 ◽  
pp. 199-227
Author(s):  
Karen De Clercq
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Natural Consequence ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Syntactic Movement ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Over Time

This chapter provides a nanosyntactic account of negation in French, modelling the change from le bon usage French (BUF) to colloquial French (CF). It is argued that language change is driven by Feature Conservation: the lexical items involved in the expression of sentential negation may change over time, but the features needed remain stable. Furthermore, it is argued that the change from BUF to CF is economy-driven, resulting in bigger lexically stored trees, less spell-out-driven movements and a maximal operationalization of the Superset Principle. In addition, the account shows how negative concord and double negation can be explained as a natural consequence of the interplay of the internal structure of lexical trees and the Superset Principle. Finally, the chapter adds to theoretical discussions within nanosyntax by presenting how the interaction between syntactic movement and spell-out-driven movement may be conceived of.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document