Feature reanalysis and the Latin origin of Romance Negative Concord

2021 ◽  
pp. 113-138
Author(s):  
Chiara Gianollo
Keyword(s):  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Structural Reanalysis ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Syntactic Relation

This chapter investigates the sequence of changes leading from the Latin system of negation to the various Romance outcomes. While Classical Latin is a Double Negation language, the earliest Romance varieties show a Negative Concord grammar. In the proposed analysis, this seemingly paradoxical development is explained by situating the prerequisites for Negative Concord already at the Late Latin stage. In Late Latin, a featural and structural reanalysis of the negative marker entails the activation of a projection in the clause where sentential negation has to be identified. This, in turn, triggers the grammaticalization of new negatively marked indefinites licensed in the scope of negation. These indefinites establish a syntactic relation first with the Focus Phrase (as negation strengtheners) and subsequently with the Negation Phrase, yielding a Negative Concord system. This study highlights the importance of generative research on the nature and format of syntactic features for our understanding of diachrony.

scholarly journals Exploring negation in Awing

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-107
Author(s):  
NYOMY Cyrine Cyrine
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Negative Polarity Items ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
West Region ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Universal Category ◽  
Negative Marker

Negation is a universal category and languages differ in many respects in the way they express the latter (see Klima 1964). In this regards, some languages express sentential negation (a subcategorization of negation) with one marker (Dutch, German, English, etc.) while others like French uses two markers. Alongside markers used to express sentential negation, other items, among which Negative Polarity Items, mark negation and tight a particular element within its domain. In this paper, I aim at providing a picture of the expression of negation in Awing (a Bantu Grassfield langue of the Ngemba Group spoken in the North West region of Cameroon). Accordingly, sentential negation is expressed with two discontinuous markers kě…pô. One fact important to the presence of this negative marker is the movement of postverbal elements to a preverbal position turning the SVO structure in non-negative clause to an SOV pattern in negative clauses. In addition, the study describes other negative elements and negation subcategories. In last, the study of negative concord reveals that Awing belongs to the group of Strict Negative Concord (SNC) languages in which n-words must co-occur with negative marker to yield negation.

Sentential negation in early child English

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROSALIND THORNTON ◽  
GRACIELA TESAN
Keyword(s):  
Negative Concord ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Longitudinal Pattern ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Children First ◽  
Positive Input ◽  
Economical Parameter

Starting with the seminal work of Klima & Bellugi (1966) and Bellugi (1967), young English-speaking children have been observed to pass through a stage at which their negative utterances differ from those of adults. Children initially use not or no, whereas adults use negative auxiliary verbs (don't, can't, etc.). To explain the observed mismatches between child and adult language, the present study adopts Zeijlstra's (2004, 2007, 2008a, b) Negative Concord Parameter, which divides languages according to whether they interpret negation directly in the semantics with an adverb, or license it in the syntactic component, in which case the negative marker is a head and the language is a negative concord language. Our proposal is that children first hypothesize that negation is expressed with an adverb, in keeping with the more economical parameter value. Because English is exceptional in having both an adverb and a head form of negation, children must also add a negative head (i.e. n't) to their grammar. This takes considerable time as the positive input that triggers syntactic negation and negative concord is absent in the input for standard English, and children must find alternative evidence. The Negative Concord Parameter accounts for an intricate longitudinal pattern of development in child English, as non-adult structures are eliminated and a new range of structures are licensed by the grammar.

The Morpho-Syntactic Nature of the Negative Marker

2020 ◽  
pp. 116-134
Author(s):  
Chiara Gianollo
Keyword(s):  
Negative Concord ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Structural Aspects

This chapter is dedicated to the morpho-syntactic properties of markers of sentential negation, and to the relation between such properties and other aspects of the syntax of negation. It reviews the results of cross-linguistic research and describes the different forms of negative markers (affixes, particles, auxiliary verbs, complementizers). It also discusses a number of correlations between the form of the sentential negative marker and more general structural aspects (doubling, pre- vs. postverbal negation, presence of Negative Concord).

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.

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.

Negative Concord in English

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette
Keyword(s):  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Pragmatic Feature ◽  
Insight Into

This paper argues that Negative Concord is generated by the grammars of all English varieties, but just not “realized” in the standardized variety, in the sense of Barbiers (2005, 2009). I show that Double Negation constructions, wherein two negative elements yield a doubly negated meaning, are formed identically by English varieties that realize Negative Concord and those that do not. Unlike previous Minimalist Agree approaches to English Negative Concord, this proposal accounts for the fact that English varieties generate both Double Negation and Negative Concord constructions. This paper employs Tortora’s (2009, in press) mechanism of feature spreading, and López’s (2009) derivational assignment of the pragmatic feature [contrast], to successfully capture the facts of Negative Concord and Double Negation in English. In so doing, it contributes insight into the representation of sentential negation, and supports the Barbiersian notion that not all grammatical structures are realized in a given variety.

Contrastive Focus, French N-words and Variation

1998 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Thérèse Vinet
Keyword(s):  
General Principle ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
Local Relation ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Similarities And Differences

AbstractThe aim of this article is to argue that the similarities and differences in the interpretation ofn-words (personne, rien, etc.) in two closely related dialects of French can be explained by considerations linked to lexical properties as well as to properties of contrastive stress in Universal Grammar. The minor lexical differences in the two systems are related to the fact that only in Standard French is a single negation reading ruled out when an adverbial negative marker bearing [+neg, −T, −Asp] features, i.e.,pas, appears in the scope of an unstressedn-word. A general principle is proposed to account for the fact that a contrastively focusedn-word always blocks the local relation which seems necessary for a negative concord reading. It is observed that the presence of an intervening quantifier between the negative quantifier and then-word always induces a Double Negation reading.

scholarly journals Jespersen's cycle in Slovenian

Linguistica ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 349-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gašper Ilc
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Structural Position ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Syntactic Status ◽  
Bipartite Negation ◽  
Syntactic Derivation

The paper examines the syntactic status of the negative marker in standard Slovenian and its Pannonian dialects in terms of the grammaticalisation process known as Jespersen's cycle. Assuming that Jespersen's Cycle can be observed synchronically, the paper focusses on the correlation between the morpho-phonological strength of the negative marker and the syntactic derivation of negative clauses. The data analysis identifies at least three different stages of Jespersen's cycle in modern Slovenian: (i) the clitic-likenegation, (ii) the bipartite negation, and (iii) the adverb-like negation, the first occurring in standard Slovenian and the latter two in the Pannonian dialect group. In terms of the generative syntactic derivation, the analysis proposes that the negative marker occupies three different structural positions: (i) the head of the Negation phrase (clitic-like negation), (ii) the specifier of the Negation phrase (adverb-like negation) or (iii) both syntactic positions (bipartite negation). In addition, the paper explores the question whether the syntactic position of the negative marker determines the semantic interpretation of multiple occurrences of negative elements, in particular, the negative concord and the double negation interpretation. The analysis shows that in Slovenian the morpho-phonological properties of the negative marker and its structural position bear no consequences for the semantic interpretation of multiple occurrences of negative elements.

Negation and First Language Acquisition

2020 ◽  
pp. 598-614
Author(s):  
Rosalind Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Standard English ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Hierarchical Position ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Negative Marker

This chapter investigates children’s acquisition of negation from a cross-linguistic perspective. The chapter reviews topics in the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of negation in children’s grammars. Discussion of the syntax of negation in early grammars includes the hierarchical position of negation in children’s early structures, internal versus external negation, and the syntactic category of the negative marker. Topics relevant to 3- to 5-year-old grammars include children’s access to double negation, whether or not children acquiring Standard English permit negative concord as part of their core grammar, and children’s negative question structures. Children’s acquisition of the semantics of negation is covered in a discussion of negation as a licensor of any and of disjunction. The investigations underline the importance of providing appropriate pragmatic contexts in experiments targeting children’s production and comprehension of negation.

scholarly journals Nobody Doesn’t Like Negative Concord

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mora Maldonado ◽  
Jennifer Culbertson
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
The Status ◽  
Negative Marker

AbstractLanguages vary with respect to whether sentences with two negative elements give rise to double negation or negative concord meanings. We explore an influential hypothesis about what governs this variation: namely, that whether a language exhibits double negation or negative concord is partly determined by the phonological and syntactic nature of its negative marker (Zeijlstra 2004; Jespersen 1917). For example, one version of this hypothesis argues that languages with affixal negation must be negative concord (Zeijlstra 2008). We use an artificial language learning experiment to investigate whether English speakers are sensitive to the status of the negative marker when learning double negation and negative concord languages. Our findings fail to provide evidence supporting this hypothesised connection. Instead, our results suggest that learners find it easier to learn negative concord languages compared to double negation languages independently of whether the negative marker is an adverb or an affix. This is in line with evidence from natural language acquisition (Thornton et al. 2016).

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