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Sentential negation and negative concord
Zeijlstra, H.H.
Publication date
2004
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
Zeijlstra, H. H. (2004). Sentential negation and negative concord. LOT/ACLC.
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Sententiall Negation
andd Negative Concord
Sententiall Negation and Negative Concord describes and explains a series of phenomenaa that surface in the study of negation as well the typological correlationss between these phenomena.
Thee study focuses on four issues: (i) the way that sentential negation is expressedd syntactically, i.e. what are the syntactic properties of negative markerss cross-linguistically; (ii) the occurrence of Negative Concord, i.e. the phenomenonn that in many languages multiple morpho-syntactically negative elementss yield only one semantic negation; (iii) the question whether imperativee forms of verbs are allowed to occur in negative constructions; and (iv)) the interpretation of constructions in which a universal quantifier subject precedess a negative marker: in most languages the negation then outscopes thee subject.
Basedd on the results of Dutch diachronic, Dutch dialectological and cross-linguisticc research the author shows that all these phenomena can be describedd in terms of typological implications. For instance, every language thatt bans true negative imperatives has at least a negative marker that is a syntacticc head; and every language with such a negative head marker is on its turnn a Negative Concord language.
Thee author presents a syntax-semantics interface theory of sentential negation andd Negative Concord that correctly predicts these typological implications. Onee of the general conclusions of this study is that n-words (in Negative Concordd languages-) should not be thought of as negative quantifiers or negativee polarity items, but that they should be considered as semantically non-negativee indefinites that are syntactically marked for negation.
Thiss study is of relevance to syntacticians, semanticists and scholars in the syntax-semanticss interface, as well as to diachronic linguists, dialectologists andd typologists. Netherlands s Graduate e II L O T school of. — ^ ^ ^ —— Linguistics ISBNN 90-76864-68-3
