Cover not available
Part of
Sound, Syntax and Contact in the Languages of Asturias
Edited by Guillermo Lorenzo
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 36] 2022
► pp. 151–172

Chapter 8
Negation in Asturian

Pragmatic differences at the syntax-phonology interface

| University of Oviedo

The discourse markers in modern Asturian non and nun are not just two variants of the same unit of negation, as has been traditionally thought. Rather, they are lexical items that codify different types of polarity and express different types of negation. The present analysis will show that non is a peripheral independent C-unit that expresses relative polarity and is used to refute a previous utterance (metalinguistic negation). Nun, on the other hand, is an ambiguous negative marker: not only does it codifies negative polarity in ΣP and legitimises negative polarity items (sentential negation); it is also linked to ascending intonation, can activate the <objection> value of relative polarity in C, and refutes a previous statement.

Keywords: negation, metalinguistic negation, sentence polarity, pragmatics, Asturian syntax
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The pragmatic notion of metalinguistic negation
  • 3.Negation in Asturian: A general overview
    • 3.1Previous discourse legitimisation
    • 3.2Intolerance to morphological manifestation
    • 3.3Inability to legitimise items with negative polarity
    • 3.4Compatibility with positive polarity items
    • 3.5Impact on the position of clitics
  • 4.Nun, ΣP and the syntax of polarity in Asturian
    • 4.1ΣP and sentence structure in Asturian
    • 4.2Polarity constraints on clitic position
  • 5.The syntax of metalinguistic negation
    • 5.1Non: A metalinguistic negation marker
    • 5.2The interplay between Σ and C
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.36.08san
References
Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (ALLA)
(1999) Gramática de la llingua asturiana. 3rd ed. Academia de la Llingua Asturiana.Google Scholar
(1981) Normes ortográfiques y entamos normativos. 2nd ed. Academia de la Llingua Asturiana.Google Scholar
Alvarellos Pedrero, M., Muñiz Cachón, C., Díaz Gómez, L. & González Rodríguez, R.
(2011) La entonación en las variedades lingüísticas de Asturias: estudio contrastivo, Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 17, 111–120.Google Scholar
Ambar, M.
(2002) Wh-questions and wh-exclamatives – unifying mirror effects. In C. Beyssade, R. Bok-Bennema, F. Drijkoningen & P. Monachesi. (eds.). Romance languages and linguistic theory 2000: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’ 2000 (pp. 15–40). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andrés, R. d’
(1995) Non y nun. Lletres Asturianes, 57, 49–60.Google Scholar
(1993) Allugamientu de los pronomes átonos col verbun’asturianu. Universidád’Uviéu/ Departamentu de FiloloxíaEspañola.Google Scholar
Carston, R.
(1996) Metalinguistic Negation and Echoic Use. Journal of Pragmatics, 25, 319–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ducrot, O.
(1984) Le dire et le dit. Minuit.Google Scholar
(1972) Dire et ne pas dire. Hermann.Google Scholar
Embick, D. & Noyer, R.
(2001) Movement operations after Syntax. Linguistic Inquiry, 32(4), 555–595. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Farkas, D. F. & Bruce, K. B.
(2010) On reacting to assertions and polar questions. Journal of Semantics, 27(1), 81–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Lorences, T.
(2009–2010) Ámbito del predicado y posición de los pronombres átonos en asturiano. Revista de Filoloxía Asturiana, 9, 87–108.Google Scholar
Fernández-Rubiera, F. J.
(2009) Clitics at the edge: Clitic placement in Western Iberian Romance Languages. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Georgetown University.
Fernandez-Rubiera, F. J.
(2014) When Phonology undergenerates: evidence from Asturian enclitic structures. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 40, 85–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Floricic, F.
(2018) Observaciones sobre la negación asturiana: comparación con otros idiomas romances. Lletres Asturianes, 119, 11–35.Google Scholar
Forest, R.
(1992) L’interprétation des énoncés négatifs. Langue Française, 94. Les négations, 35–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcia Valdés, C. C.
(1979) Algunos aspectos de la negación en asturiano. Estudios y Trabayos del Seminariu de Llingua Asturiana, 1, 74–84.Google Scholar
González i Planas, F.
(2007) Sintaxis de los clíticos pronominales en asturleonés. Ianua. Revista Philologica Romanica, 7, 15–35.Google Scholar
Horn, L. R.
(1989) A Natural history of negation. CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Kayne, R.
(1991) Romance Clitics, Verb Movement, and PRO. Linguistic Inquiry, 22(4), 647–686.Google Scholar
Laka, I.
(1990) Negation in syntax: On the nature of functional categories and projections. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Longa, V. M. & Lorenzo, G.
(2001) Movimiento nuclear y economía: valor de la concordancia y movilidad de los clíticos en los romances occidentales. Verba, Anuario Galego de Filoloxía, 28, 101–124.Google Scholar
Lorenzo, G.
(1995) La sintaxis de los clíticos del asturiano en el contexto de las lenguas romances. Desarrollo y evaluación de algunas hipótesis. Verba, Anuario Galego de Filoloxía, 22, 191–227.Google Scholar
(1994) Optionality in the placement of Asturian clitics. Catalan Working Papers in Linguistics, 4(1), 93–120.Google Scholar
Martins, A. M.
(2013) Emphatic polarity in European Portuguese and beyond. Lingua, 128, 95–123. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) Emphatic Affirmation and Polarity: Contrasting European Portuguese with Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan and Galician. In J. Doetjes & P. González. (eds.). Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2004: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’ 2004 (pp. 197–223). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2005) Clitic placement, VP-ellipsis and scrambling in Romance. In M. Batllori, M. Ll. Hernanz, C. Picallo & F. Roca. (eds.). Grammaticalization and parametric variation (pp. 175–193). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014) How much syntax is there in metalinguistic negation? Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 32(2), 635–672. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010) Negação metalinguística (lá, cá e agora). In A. M. Brito. (ed.). Textos seleccionados. Actas do XXV Encontro da Asociação Portuguesa de Linguística (APL) (pp. 567–587). APL.Google Scholar
(1994) Clíticos na história do português. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Universidade de Lisboa.
Pereira, S.
(2010) O marcador de negação metalinguística“agora” nos dialectos do português europeu. [Unpublished master thesis]. Universidade de Lisboa.
Pinto, C.
(2010) Negação metalinguística e estruturas com “nada” no portugués europeu. [Unpublished master thesis]. Universidade de Lisboa.
Recanati, F.
(2000) Oratio obliqua, oratio recta. An essay on metarepresentation. MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
San-Segundo-Cachero, R.
(2008) Polaridad positiva en asturiano: análisis de “bien que.” Revista de Filoloxía Asturiana, 6/7/8, 273–287.Google Scholar
(2016) Negación metalingüística y estructura informativa: caracterización sintáctico-pragmática de “non”. Lletres Asturianes. Boletín de l’Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, 114, 59–89.Google Scholar
Sperber, D. & Wilson, D.
(1986/1994) La relevancia: comunicación y procesos cognitivos. Visor.Google Scholar
Villa-García, J.
(2019) Dialectal variation in clitic placement in Andalusian and Asturian Spanish negative infinitival imperatives. In Á. Gallego. (ed.). The syntactic variation of Spanish dialects (pp. 127–158). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Villa-García, J. & Sánchez Llana, H.
this volume). Asturian and Asturian Spanish at the syntax-phonology interface: clitic directionality, imperatives, and inversion in wh-interrogatives.