Negation and polarity: an introduction

Penka, Doris; Zeijlstra, Hedde

doi:10.1007/s11049-010-9114-0

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(26 reference statements)

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“…The prediction is borne out, as now keenly noticed in both Giannakidou (2002) and Penka and Zeijlstra (2010), and can correctly be replicated for Catalan (M. Español-Echevarría, p.c. ):…”

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confidence: 56%

Theory and experiment in Parametric Minimalism: the case of Romance Negation

Longobardi

2017

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This paper has a double goal: frst, it lays down and refnes the basic hypotheses on the parametric structure of Romance negative systems that were originally introduced in my presentation at the Venice GLOW Workshop on Dialect Variation in 1987 (especially sections 3-9 and 11-13)3; then it further elaborates on them (sections 10 and 14-15), and revisits the conclusions (sections 16-22) in light of a more recent minimalist approach to the possible formats of parametric variation (the Principles & Schemata model, sketched in Longobardi 2005a). More generally, the theoretical focus of the article is on exploring how minimalist research on syntactic diversity could be conducted.In the spirit of Borer (1984), the parameters of negation can be argued to be essentially encoded in the lexical entries of the sentential negation morpheme and of the negative determiners of each language. No space is left in this framework for such generic notions as (strict or non-strict) ‘negative concord’ vs. ‘double negation’ languages. In fact, these notions looked at best epiphenomenal and obsolete already in 1987: in spite of their continued use even in recent literature, they turn out to be both insuffcient and unnecessary, and are potentially misleading.Now, a good deal of the negation parametrisation can be shown to have to do with the feature composition of lexical entries and to be actually nearly ‘perfect’, in three minimalist senses: frst, given Boolean conditions on feature association, the parametric choices exhaust the set of logical possibilities, determining whether the values of such features may, must, or may not co-occur on one and the same (class of) item(s); second, all the parameters needed for crosslinguistic descriptive adequacy ft into independently attested and restrictive schemata; third, they are shaped by, or interact with, natural third-factor conditions (Chomsky 2005); fnally the parametrisation hypothesised is ‘complete’ in the technical sense that all the typologically possible combinations of values turn out to be attested.With respect to UG principles, I show how objections against the possible universality of conditions on covert long-distance dependencies, as established by Italian negative operators (Rizzi 1982, Longobardi 1991), can be successfully addressed and eventually dismissed. Furthermore, such conditions are argued to be fully structural principles rather than functional preferences.

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“…The prediction is borne out, as now keenly noticed in both Giannakidou (2002) and Penka and Zeijlstra (2010), and can correctly be replicated for Catalan (M. Español-Echevarría, p.c. ):…”

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confidence: 56%

Theory and experiment in Parametric Minimalism: the case of Romance Negation

Longobardi

2017

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“…The semantically nonnegative indefinite carries an uninterpretable negative feature [ u NEG] that has to be checked against a (covert) semantic negation, that is, against an interpretable negative feature [NEG] on a semantically negative element . The negative indefinite is therefore the visible result of syntactic agreement, similar to phenomena such as subject–verb agreement or multiple gender marking on, for example, nouns and adjectives (see Penka & Zeijlstra :781).…”

Section: Background For the Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another option is to analyze negative indefinites as complex, decomposable lexical items (see, among others, Jacobs , Rullmann , Giannakidou , Sauerland , Weiß , Tubau , Haegeman & Lohndahl , Johnson , Penka & Zeijlstra , Iatridou & Sichel , Penka , Zeijlstra , Merchant ) . In particular, although it is spelled out as a single word, no contains two syntactically and semantically distinct ingredients: (sentential) negation and an indefinite (expressing existential quantification).…”

Section: Background For the Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…“Decomposed” object negative indefinites are often argued to be the result of Agree or feature checking between a sentential polarity head (an abstract negative operator) and a nonnegative indefinite in object position (cf. Giannakidou , Weiß , Tubau , Haegeman & Lohndahl , Penka & Zeijlstra , Penka , Merchant ). The presence of an abstract negative marker is needed to license the indefinite.…”

Section: Background For the Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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How (Not) to Elide Negation

Craenenbroeck

Temmerman

2017

Syntax

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This paper examines the behavior of English negative indefinites under VP ellipsis. The main empirical observation is that negative indefinites cannot take scope out of a verbal ellipsis site. We propose that negative indefinites involve fusion under adjacency between the clausal polarity head and an indefinite determiner and that this adjacency comes about under multidominance. Multidominance can feed the morphological coalescence of two syntactic terminals that on the surface do not appear to be linearly adjacent. The claim that there is a morphological relation between these two heads-rather than a syntactic one-is supported by the fact that it can be bled by ellipsis. Given that ellipsis is a process at Phonological Form (PF), it can block fusion, thus preventing high scope of negative indefinites out of an ellipsis site.

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“…Cases such as (21) and many others show that (20) reduces to a more general condition. This must indicate that in order for a sentence to qualify as an instance of sentential negation, the NEG determining that property takes high scope in the matrix clause (see Stockwell et al 1973: 248;Payne 1985: 200;Horn 1989Horn [2001Penka 2015).…”

Section: Confirmation Tagsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interclausal NEG raising and the scope of negation

Collins

Postal

2017

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

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In this paper, we show that the syntactic analysis of one major type of NEG raising in Collins & Postal (2014) is inconsistent with the facts of negation scope revealed by Klima (1964) type tests for sentential negation. Two of the four original Klima tests plus three additional ones are discussed. We propose a novel alternative syntactic analysis, one also involving NEG raising, that is consistent with the relevant tests, as well as with all the principles of NEG raising and NEG deletion proposed in Collins & Postal (2014). We suggest, further, that the newer analysis permits a more uniform overall conception of the various cases of NEG Raising.

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Negation and polarity: an introduction

Cited by 29 publications

References 38 publications

Theory and experiment in Parametric Minimalism: the case of Romance Negation

Theory and experiment in Parametric Minimalism: the case of Romance Negation

How (Not) to Elide Negation

Interclausal NEG raising and the scope of negation

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