Adjunction Sites for Negation in Norwegian: Modals and Negation

Abstract

This paper investigates a surprising interpretational asymmetry in modal-negation sequences in Norwegian: When the negation word follows the subject, the sentence is ambiguous with respect to the relative scopes of the negation and the modal. When negation precedes the subject, however, the negation unambiguously takes scope over the modal. I argue that this asymmetry can be accounted for by assuming that verb raising has semantic implications; contrary to Chomsky (2001a). Modal-negation sequences in subordinate clauses do not display the same asymmetry, which supports the hypothesis that verb raising causes the observed patterns. Moreover, many speakers reject the sequence negation-subject in subordinate clauses. I propose that, for these speakers, main clauses employ two adjunction sites for negation, whereas subordinate clauses employ only one.

Argument placement in Norwegian

“…Most of the research on midfield subject placement in Norwegian has focused on the placement of subjects with respect to negation, rather than to other midfield adverbs, see for example Eide (2002), Østbø Munch (2013, Bentzen (2014b), Anderssen et al (2018) and Olsen (2019) (but see also Åfarli 2010 for discussion of other adverbs). This is mainly due to the fact that negation is the most frequent midfield adverb, but also due to the fact that it is relatively easy to compare negation placement cross-linguistically.…”

Prescriptive infinitives in the modern North Germanic languages: An ancient phenomenon in child-directed speech

“…Inflected imperatives typically occur without explicit subjects, with the Icelandic cliticised subjects presented in (7c) being an exception. But when they do occur overtly, imperative subjects are post-verbal in all the languages (Platzack & Rosengren 1998:218; Eide 2002:232, 2016). We saw an example of an Icelandic post-imperative subject in (7b).…”

“…Eide (2002:232) also points out that only the V–Neg order is compatible with a sentential adverb like derfor ‘therefore’. Neither subjects nor sentential adverbs can co-oocur with the order Neg–V.…”

“…But when they do occur overtly, imperative subjects are post-verbal in all the languages (Platzack & Rosengren 1998:218;Eide 2002Eide :232, 2016. We saw an example of an Icelandic post-imperative subject in (7b).…”

A tractable typed feature structure grammar for Mainland Scandinavian

“…But in this case, ikke is not interpreted as a sentence adverbial.) Eide (2002) suggests the difference is whether negation is tense-related or not, citing the translation equivalents:…”