LINGUIST List 17.2359
Sun Aug 20 2006
Sum: Initial Clausal Negation
Editor for this issue: Kevin Burrows
<kevinlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Jan
Lindström,
Initial Clausal Negation
Message 1: Initial Clausal Negation
Date: 01-Aug-2006
From: Jan Lindström <jan.k.lindstromhelsinki.fi>
Subject: Initial Clausal Negation
Query for this summary posted in LINGUIST Issue:
17.1366
Regarding Query: http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-1366.html#1
Dear Linguists
Here is a summary on the replies I received to my query on initial clausalnegation, sent to the list in May 4 (sorry for the delay!). I am interestedin mapping the existence of initial clausal negation in differentlanguages, since this phenomenon is especially frequent in my own language,Finland Swedish. As mentioned in the original query, the negating adverb“inte” (‘not’) can initiate a clause with a declarative or an interrogativefunction:
1. INTE var det något fel på di där tacosarna. not was it any fault on those tacosi.e. There was not fault with those tacos. (They were okay)
2. INTE behöver jag ta skorna bort? not need I take shoes awayi.e. I do not need to take off my shoes? (Don't I need...)
This word order, sometimes referred to as the topicalization of thenegative operator, is possible also in standard Swedish but not so common.In an areal perspective it is interesting that the negating verb oftenstands in initial clausal position in Finnish, which might have had aneffect on Finland Swedish (in its spoken form). Of course, it is an anotherissue what in practice conditions the clause initial placement of negation;clearly, it is one variant position and has a pragmatic value that in somerespects contrasts with the standard placement of negation in post-verbalclausal position. However, I am not going into the semantics or pragmaticshere.
Here is a brief survey of the replies concerning other languages; possiblemisunderstandings are my responsibility. My thanks go to the persons whohelpfully provided the information, a list of the contributors and thelanguages they informed about is at the end of this text. The informationconcerns the Scandinavian languages, English, Celtic, Bulgarian, Greek anda few general references.
I. Scandinavian
Ken Ramshøj Christensen has studied clausal negation in Scandinavian in hisPhD within the framework of minimalist syntactic theory. According to hisdata, initial clausal negation occurs, apart from Swedish, also in Faroese,Icelandic and Norwegian:
Fa: Ikki ljóðar tað væl.Not sounds that well
Ic: Ekki leika stelpurnar sér að dúkkum.Not play girls.the SELF.DAT with dolls.DAT
No: Ikkje var det sett opp noko varsel om denne faren.Not were it put up any warning about this danger.the
Sw: Inte tänker han sälja bilen i vår.Not thinks he sell car.the in spring
Modern Danish does not allow the initial position for the negating adverb.There may be some variation in acceptability also in Norwegian, as pointedout by Gisle Andersen. The initial position is most felicitous in additivenegated lists, i.e. in a series of (emphatic) negative clauses:
Ikke var det noe feil med de der tacoene. Ikke var vinen dårlig heller.Jeg forstår ikke hva han klager over!‘Not was there any fault with those tacos. Not was the wine bad either.I don’t understand what you complain about!’
II. English
As we can understand from the translations of the above examples,negative-operator-first word order is not good modern English. It waspointed out, however, that such a word order was possible in Old English,involving inversion of the subject and the verb (like still in present dayScandinavian).
Ne com he.'Not came he', i.e., 'He didn't come'
Also, modern English may have certain negative adverbs in a relatedconstruction type:
Never have I seen the Eiffel Tower.At no time did Mary tell him.Never did he go there.Nowhere was he to be found.(In) No way did Mary do that.
But strictly speaking I am not concerned with instances of this type butonly with the initial clausal placement of the standard negating operator.
III. Celtic
Initial clausal negation is possibly also a Celtic phenomenon. It can befound in Ulster Irish
Ní (chan) fhaca tú mo nighean.neg see [past] you my daughter`You didn't see my daughter.'
Níor (cha-r) ól tú a gcuid uisce.neg-past drank you their portion water` You didn't drink their water.'
as well as in Welsh (see references below).
IV. Bulgarian
Also Bulgarian seems to have initial clausal negation, as informed by LjubaVeselovina. The use is possibly pragmatically/stylistically conditioned.
ne iska-m da rabotja dnesnot want-1.sg.pres to work-1.sg.pres todayI do not want to work today
However, standard negation in Bulgarian is pre-verbal but not necessarilyclause initial:
Dnes ne iska-m da rabotjatoday not want-1,sg.pres to work-1.sg.presToday I do not want to work
V. Greek
For spoken Cypriot Greek it is noted that , oi na+V regularly modifies the mainclause, and can thus be regarded as an initial clausal negator. In suchcases, oi na+V seems to have the function of ‘request not to X’:
Αλλά να μιλάς Κυπριακά, όι να βάλεις τα επίσημά σου.“But you should speak Cypriot, don't speak formally.”
The negator-first clause is apparently a response to a previous statement.
There are also two sentential (VP-internal) negations in Greek, 'min' and'd(h)en' (English'not').
VI. General
There are interesting general surveys on clausal negation that also concernthe clause initial variant. Laurence Horn (1989) discusses the rarity ofinitial (clause-scope) negation in his book “A Natural History ofNegation”. Of general interest concerning negation in the laguages of theworld are the works by Östen Dahl and Matti Miestamo.
REFERENCES
Borsley and Jones. 2005. ''Welsh Negation and Grammatical Theory''.Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Christensen, Ken Ramshøj. 2003. ''On the Synchronic and Diachronic Statusof the Negative Adverbial ikke/not''. Working Papers in ScandinavianSyntax, WPSS 72, 1-53, December 2003.
Christensen, Ken Ramshøj. Interface. Negation – Syntax- Brain. PhD.Department of English, University of Aarhus; The MR Research Centre, AarhusUniversity Hospital. Download athttp://www.hum.au.dk/engelsk/engkrc/Papers/krc-phd.pdf
Dahl, Östen. 1979. Typology of sentence negation. Linguistics 17, 79-106.
Horn, Laurence. 1989. “A Natural History of Negation”. University ofChicago Press, reissued 2001 by CSLI).
Lawler, John. 1971. “Any Questions?” . Papers from the 7th RegionalMeeting, Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 7).
Miestamo, Matti. 2003. Clausal Negation: A Typological Study. Ph.D.Dissertation, University of Helsinki.
Miestamo, Matti. 2005. Standard Negation: The Negation of DeclarativeVerbal Main Clauses in a Typological Perspective. Empirical Approaches toLanguage Typology 31. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
CONTRIBUTORS
Gisle Andersen (Norwegian)Ken Ramshøj Christensen (Scandinavian)Laurence Horn (General)John Lawler (English)Bob Morris Jones (Welsh)Vincenzo Moscati (Irish)Nina Nellemann Rasmussen (Danish)Graham Shorrocks (English)Marina Terkourafi (Greek)Ljuba Veselinova (Bulgarian, general)
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
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