Part of
New Perspectives on Romance Linguistics: Vol. I: Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and PragmaticsEdited by Chiyo Nishida and Jean-Pierre Y. Montreuil
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 275] 2006
► pp. 1–12
Edited by Chiyo Nishida and Jean-Pierre Y. Montreuil
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 275] 2006
► pp. 1–12
A Polarity-Sensitive Disjunction
Spanish ni … ni
This paper argues that in Spanish negative phrases of the form “ni XP ni XP” 'neither XP nor XP', ni is a polarity-sensitive disjunction. Following the widening/strengthening account of polarity sensitivity in Heim (1984), Kadmon and Landman (1993), and others, it is argued that ni-XPs have a restricted distribution because they can only satisfy their requirement of pragmatic strengthening in the scope of negation. This analysis fulfills a prediction made by Krifka's (1992) Polarity Lattice approach regarding the existence of polarity-sensitive disjunctions.
