LINGUIST List 19.2764
Thu Sep 11 2008
Diss: Historical Ling/Ling Theories/Socioling/Syntax: Kallel: 'The ...'
Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter
<evelynlinguistlist.org>
1. Amel
Kallel,
The Lexical Reanalysis of N-words and the Loss of Negative Concord in Standard English
Message 1: The Lexical Reanalysis of N-words and the Loss of Negative Concord in Standard English
Date: 10-Sep-2008
From: Amel Kallel <amelkallelhotmail.com>
Subject: The Lexical Reanalysis of N-words and the Loss of Negative Concord in Standard English
E-mail this message to a friend
Institution: Reading University
Program: Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005
Author: Amel Kallel
Dissertation Title: The Lexical Reanalysis of N-words and the Loss of Negative Concord in Standard English
Linguistic Field(s):
Historical Linguistics
Linguistic Theories
Sociolinguistics
Syntax
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Prof. Anthony Warner
Prof. Susan Pintzuk
Prof. Anthony Kroch
Dr. Richard Ingham
Dissertation Abstract:
The Loss of Negative Concord (NC) has long been attributed to externalfactors. This study re-addresses this issue and provides evidence for thefailure of certain external factors to account for the observed decline andultimate disappearance of NC in Standard English. A detailed study ofNegation in Late Middle and Early Modern English reveals that the processof decline of NC was a case of a natural change, preceded by a period ofvariation. Variation existed not only on the level of speech community as awhole, but also within individual speakers (contra Lightfoot 1991). A closestudy of n-indefinites in negative contexts and their ultimate replacementwith Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) in a number of grammatical environmentsshows that the decline of NC follows the same pattern across contexts in aform of parallel curvature, which indicates that the loss of NC is anatural process. This study reveals that the decline takes place at thesame rate in all observed contexts. A context constancy effect is obtainedacross all contexts indicating that the loss of NC is triggered by a changein a single underlying parameter setting. Accordingly, a theory-internalexplanation is suggested. N-words underwent a lexical reanalysis wherebythey acquired a new grammatical feature [+Neg] and were thus reinterpretedas negative quantifiers, rather than NPIs. This lexical reanalysis wastriggered by the ambiguous status of N-words between [+Neg] and [-Neg] andthus between single and double negative meanings. This change is treated asa case of parameter resetting as this lexical reanalysis affected a wholeset of lexical items and can thus economically account for the differentobserved surface changes.
|