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.

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.

Indefinites and negation in the history of Latin

2018 ◽  
pp. 137-201
Author(s):  
Chiara Gianollo
Keyword(s):  
Major Change ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Extreme Dependence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Negative Indefinites

This chapter is a study of Latin indefinites in direct-negation contexts. These indefinites are interesting from a theoretical point of view because of their extreme dependence on the surrounding structural conditions, and because of the variety of their instantiations in different linguistic systems. Two phenomena of Latin grammar with wide-ranging implications for the development of Romance indefinites are discussed: the syntax of negation and the diachronic pathways followed by indefinites interacting with it. Latin is a Double Negation language, whereas Early Romance exhibits Negative Concord. The study proposes that this typological shift is linked to another major change from Latin to Romance, namely the change from OV to VO. Late Latin is analyzed as a ‘concealed’ nonstrict Negative Concord language, in which restrictions in the use of the ‘old’ negative indefinites emerge, as well as new patterns with (new) negative-polarity items.

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.

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

The locust jump. I. The motor programme

1977 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-219
Author(s):  
W. J. Heitler ◽  
M. Burrows
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Flexor Muscle ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Extensor Muscles ◽  
Trigger Activity ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Motor Programme ◽  
Made In

A motor programme is described for defensive kicking in the locust which is also probably the programme for jumping. The method of analysis has been to make intracellular recordings from the somata of identified motornuerones which control the metathoracic tibiae while defensive kicks are made in response to tactile stimuli. Three stages are recognized in the programme. (1) Initial flexion of the tibiae results from the low spike threshold of tibial flexor motorneurones to tactile stimulation of the body. (2) Co-contraction of flexor and extensor muscles followa in which flexor and extensor excitor motoneurones spike at high frequency for 300-600 ms. the tibia flexed while the extensor muscle develops tension isometrically to the level required for a kick or jump. (3) Trigger activity terminates the co-contraction by inhibiting the flexor excitor motorneurones and simultaneously exciting the flexor inhibitors. This causes relaxation of the flexor muscle and allows the tibiae to extend. If the trigger activity does not occur, the jump or kick is aborted, and the tibiae remain flexed.

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.

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. 

scholarly journals Ouk ´Ismen Oudén: Negative Concord and Negative Polarity in the History of Greek

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Horrocks
Keyword(s):  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
Negative Marker ◽  
Existential Quantification ◽  
Single Set

In Ancient Greek a single set of indefinite enclitic pronouns was used indifferently in both negative/affective environments (i.e. like negative polarity items (NPI)) and in positive ones (i.e. like positive polarity items (PPI)). At the same time the negative pronouns used as negative quantifiers (NQ) were also employed as emphatic NPIs, with negative concord. The two functions of each class (i.e. PPI-like vs NPI-like, NQ vs NPI) were determined by syntactic distribution. In the specific case of negative sentences, an indefinite before a sentential negative marker (NM) functioned like a PPI but after a NM like an NPI, while a negative pronoun before a NM was an NQ but after an NM an NPI. This pattern was at odds with the canonical VSO clause structure that evolved in later antiquity, in which focal constituents were contrastively stressed and fronted to the left periphery: neither indefinite nor negative pronouns could be focalised because of the prosodic and/or semantic restrictions on their distribution. This deficiency was eventually remedied by formal/prosodic recharacterisation, the loss of NQs and the generalisation of NPIs to all syntactic positions available to DPs, including the focus position, a process that triggered their reinterpretation as involving universal quantification over negation rather than, as before, existential quantification under negation. The Modern Greek PPI kápjos and NPI kanís are traced from their origins in Ancient Greek and their role in the evolution of the system is explored. The final outcome is typologically to be expected in so far as NQs are redundant in a system in which NPIs appear freely both before and after NMs.

Surgeon, Media, Society, Patient

2018 ◽  
pp. 197-225
Author(s):  
Brett Lunceford
Keyword(s):  
Plastic Surgery ◽  
Cosmetic Surgery ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Respect For Autonomy ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Society ◽  
Ethical Failures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In

For many, cosmetic surgery holds the promise that one can reshape his or her body to remove perceived defects and thus have a more perfect body. However, the decision to undergo elective cosmetic surgery is not made in a vacuum, and it is easy to overlook the full range of ethical considerations surrounding cosmetic surgery. Many medical ethicists subscribe to an ethical code that centers mainly on the relationship between the doctor and patient, with a focus on respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. This chapter builds on this framework by extending the scope of actors to include not only the surgeon and the patient but also the media and the overall society. To illustrate this framework, the author uses the example of actress Heidi Montag, who underwent 10 different plastic surgery procedures in one day. The chapter concludes with a discussion of potential correctives for ethical failures in each of these areas.

scholarly journals UCLA Radiocarbon Dates III

Radiocarbon ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 318-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Fergusson ◽  
W. F. Libby
Keyword(s):  
Oxalic Acid ◽  
Barometric Pressure ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Counting Procedure ◽  
Carbonate Material ◽  
Barometric Effect ◽  
Energy Channels ◽  
Storey Building ◽  
Made In ◽  
Modern Standard

The measurements reported in this list have been made in the Isotope Laboratory of the Institute of Geophysics during 1963 and are a continuation of the work reported previously (UCLA I and UCLA II). The same counting procedure—CO2 proportional counting at 1 atm pressure in a 7.5 L counter with three energy channels—continues in use. No barometric effect on the background has been observed, presumably because of the combination of fairly constant barometric pressure in this area and the location of the equipment on the ground floor of a five storey building. Dates continue to be calculated on the basis of a C14 half life of 5568 yr according to the decision of the 1962 Cambridge Conference (Godwin, 1962). The modern standard has been taken as 95% of NBS oxalic acid for all organic samples, while for carbonate material such as shells and tufa, dates have been computed on the basis of estimates of the corresponding contemporary C14 activity (Broecker and Walton, 1959) as indicated in the description accompanying the results.

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