Negation and Clausal Structure A Comparative Study of Romance Languages

by Zanuttini, Raffaella

• ISBN13: 9780195080544
• ISBN10: 0195080548
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-06-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Every human language has some syntactic means of distinguishing a negative from a non-negative sentence; in other words, every speaker's syntactic competence provides a means to express sentential negation. This ability, however, may be expressed in different ways, as shown by the fact that individual languages employ different syntactic strategies for the expression of the same semantic function of negating a sentence. Zanuttini's goal here is to characterize the range of such variation by comparing the different syntactic means for expressing sentential negation exhibited by the members of one language family--the Romance languages--and by reducing the differences we witness to a constrained set of choices available to the particular grammars of these languages. This sort of analysis is a first step towards the ultimate goal of determining and understanding what limits there are on the syntactic options that universal grammar imposes on the expression of sentential negation.

Table of Contents

1. Issues in the Syntax of Sentential Negation	1	(14)
1.1. Negative markers and clausal structure	3	(5)
1.2. The distribution of negative constituents	8	(3)
1.3. Jespersen's cycle	11	(4)
2. Pre-verbal Negative Markers	15	(45)
2.1. The range of variation	15	(3)
2.2. Pre-verbal negative markers and complement clitics	18	(9)
2.3. Pre-verbal negative markers and subject clitics	27	(13)
2.3.1. Agreement clitics and vocalic clitics	29	(6)
2.3.2. Two structural positions for agreement clitics	35	(5)
2.4. Pre-verbal negative markers and verb movement	40	(18)
2.4.1. Negative markers in the absence of verb movement	40	(11)
2.4.2. Negative markers in the presence of verb movement	51	(7)
2.5. Summary and conclusion	58	(2)
3. Post-verbal Negative Markers	60	(45)
3.1. Issues to be addressed	60	(1)
3.2. The distribution of adverbs	61	(6)
3.3. Presuppositional versus non-presuppositional negative markers	67	(18)
3.3.1. Two structural positions for Piedmontese pa and nen	67	(12)
3.3.2. Two structural positions for Valdotain pa	79	(6)
3.4. Non-presuppositional negative markers	85	(13)
3.4.1. The structural position of Milanese no	85	(5)
3.4.2. A focus position for Pavese no	90	(8)
3.5. Summary and conclusion	98	(7)
4. Negative Imperatives	105	(50)
4.1. A puzzling asymmetry	105	(1)
4.2. Negative markers in imperative clauses	105	(9)
4.3. True imperatives	114	(3)
4.4. Suppletive imperatives	117	(9)
4.5. Pre-verbal negative markers and mood	126	(3)
4.6. A comparison of true and suppletive imperatives	129	(5)
4.7. Imperatives and adverbs	134	(7)
4.8. The syntax of imperatives	141	(9)
4.8.1. Positive imperatives	143	(2)
4.8.2. Negative imperatives	145	(5)
4.9. Residual empirical issues	150	(3)
4.10. Summary and conclusion	153	(2)
Notes	155	(30)
Bibliography	185	(10)
Index	195