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Article In: Journal of Uralic Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Who invokes silent negation?

The view from a hybrid negative concord language

 | New York University, USA
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Abstract
Zeijlstra (Zeijlstra, Hedde. 2004. Sentential negation and negative concord. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam., . 2022. Negation and negative dependencies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) proposes an agreement-style grammar, where negative concord items (NCI) are existentials that must be licensed by a pronounced or silent negation. The silent negations are invoked by NCIs themselves and, in strict-NC systems, by the overt but meaningless negative marker (NM). This paper addresses two main issues. First, why is NM obligatory in strict systems, if NCIs can invoke silent negation? Second, is it possible for strict and non-strict NC to co-exist in a language, if the NM is meaningless in the first and meaningfully negative in the second case? The paper focuses on Hungarian, based on but going beyond existing literature (. 2006. Quantification and focus in negative concord. Lingua 116. 272–313. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Kenesei, István. 2009. Quantifiers, negation and focus on the left periphery of Hungarian. Lingua 119:564–591; erratum Lingua 120: 1858–1885. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; É. Kiss, Katalin. 2015. A negative cycle in 12-15th century Hungarian. In Teresa Biberauer & George. Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological, and information-structural interactions, 86–101. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; . 2018a. Strict and non-strict negative concord in Hungarian: A unified analysis. In Huba Bartos, Marcel den Dikken, Zoltán Bánréti & Tamás Váradi (eds.), Boundaries crossed: At the interfaces of morphosyntax, phonology, pragmatics and semantics, 227–242. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar,. 2018b. Two types of quantifier particles: Quantifier-phrase internal vs. heads on the clausal spine. Glossa 3(1), #69. 32 pages. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, and others). It combines Zeijlstra’s analysis for strict-NC with Chierchia, Gennaro. 2013. Logic in grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar analysis for non-strict NC. Hungarian is particularly interesting, because it is a hybrid, and so it requires accounts of the two kinds of NC that are compatible.
Article outline
  • Introduction: [uNeg]/[iNeg] in Zeijlstra’s theory of negative concord
  • 1.Existential NCIs and a [uNeg] NM in Hungarian
    • 1.1At least some Hungarian NCIs are existentials
    • 1.2How do we know that Hungarian NEM is [uNeg]?
      • 1.2.1Zeijlstra’s argument from ¬ scoping over non-NC material preceding the NM
      • 1.2.2Zeijlstra’s argument from fragment NCI answers
      • 1.2.3A new argument from SEM NEM…, SEM NEM… ‘neither_nor’
  • 2.Why must NCIs be in the immediate scope of negation?
  • 3.The other face of the hybrid: Non-strict NC in Hungarian
    • 3.1Chierchia’s null NEG and its overt counterpart SEM in Hungarian
    • 3.2IS has a sparse semantics: It just activates alternatives
    • 3.3Postverbal non-strict NCIs
    • 3.4The hybridity question
  • 4.Briefly on matters related to intervention and phases
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (51)
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