The morpho-syntactic status of ne and its effect on the syntax of imperative sentences

Abstract

This article argues that there is compelling evidence that French ne, even in dialects that still have this particle, is no longer negative, does not determine the scope of negation with respect to other operators, does not have properties of a head (optionality), and therefore cannot be analysed as the head of NEGP in Modern Standard French. Rather, ne should be considered as an affix merged to a Tense projection (TNSP) endowed with sub-label features of polarity. This article argues that this proposal provides a unified solution for the distributional properties of ne in finite and non-finite contexts alike. It especially provides an explanation for the structure of French negative imperatives, which are characterised by the proclisis of argument clitics (ne le prends pas ‘don't take it’), crucially linked to properties of Tense, as opposed to their enclisis in positive imperatives (prends-le ‘take it’) and in spoken registers where ne is absent (prends-le pas ‘don't take it’).