Syntax of the Palestinian Arabic negation-associated exclusive construction
This paper presents an analysis of a Palestinian Arabic negation-associated exclusive construction featuring the
contrastive focus marker
illa ‘but’, with theoretical implications for the syntax of negation, negative polarity
item licensing, and the categorical status of the root in sentential syntax. It analyzes
illa-phrases as
constituents licensed by a c-commanding sentential negation (Neg), and
illa as a grammatical device encoding
contrastiveness. A crucial source for the exclusive semantics of the construction comes from a silent
bass ‘only’
immediately following
illa that constitutes a syntactic ‘shield’ against Neg scope. Rather than taking an
in-situ focus-interpretation approach (cf.
Rooth 1985,
1992), we argue for two covert movements at the syntax-semantics interface:
quantifier raising of
illa-phrases to the designated specifier of polarity Phrase followed by
Polarity-to-Focus-raising of Neg. This creates the right syntactic configuration for the truth conditional import of both
operators and captures the ‘classical’ thought that focus-sensitive exclusive operators like
only quantify over
propositional alternatives.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Salient characteristics of the NAEC
- 2.1Ban on the distribution of illa in post-tensed verb position
- 2.2Sentential negation licensing illa-phrases
- 2.3
Illa-phrases fronting across sentential negation
- 2.4Left adjunction of illa to modified cognate objects
- 2.5
illa-phrases being syntactic island-sensitive
- 3.Main proposal
- 4.Proposal defense
- 4.1Evidence for the adjunct-analysis of illa
- 4.2
Illa-phrases undergoing QR at the syntax-semantics interface
- 4.3Neg-to-Foc raising at the /syntax-semantics interface
- 4.4
Illa left-adjoined to nominal cognate objects
- 5.Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Scholz, Norbert
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