Elements of denial in Capeverdean

Abstract

This paper deals with the expression of negation in Capeverdean. More specifically, it aims at showing that this Portuguese-based Creole is a strict Negative Concord language. In fact, n-words (Laka 1990) like ningen 'no.one' and nada 'nothing' always co-occur with sentential negation, be they in preverbal or postverbal position. This means that they are prohibited in all nonnegative clauses, including modal contexts. Syntactically, they show a behavior typical of weak Negative Polarity Items (NPIs), which are variable underspecified for negative features (Martins 2000). Following Giannakidou (2002), I will propose that, semantically, these Capeverdean n-words are universal quantifiers with no intrinsic negative meaning. Finally, I briefly address the adverbs tioxi and nunka, which roughly mean 'never', and show that whereas the former is also a weak NPI but not a quantifier, the latter may be ambiguous between a strong and a weak NPI and seems to be a quantifier.