Quidemas a Marker of Emphatic Polarity

Abstract

The present paper deals with the (morpho)syntax and the interpretation of the Latin particle quidem. At the morphosyntactic level, it will be argued that quidem can be characterized as a weak adverb (in the sense of Cardinaletti & Starke 1999), and that it is the middle member of a tripartite paradigm with strong equidem and clitic -quidem as the two other members. As to the syntax of quidem, it is contended that the particle always takes scope over an entire proposition, and that it never induces constituent focus. It will be shown that the element to the left of quidem can be a focus, a topic or a discourse neutral constituent, and that the pragmatic status of this element is never affected by the presence of quidem. Finally, two claims are made about the interpretation of quidem. First, it is proposed that quidem is a marker of affirmative polarity, rather than a modal adverb. Second, in accordance with many previous accounts that consider quidem to be a focus particle, quidem will be characterized as a marker of emphatic affirmative polarity, which emphasizes that the state affairs expressed by a given proposition does indeed hold. Under this view, quidem can be considered a marker of VERUM focus (in the sense of Höhle 1992).

Spelling out the obvious

“…As a starting point Danckaert (2013) takes the standard assumption that quidem is somehow 'emphatic' (see for instance Oxford Latin Dictionary, s.v. quidem: 'particularizing and emphasizing a preceding word or phrase'; Solodow [1978, 13]: 'quidem essentially emphasizes').…”

“…emphatic affirmative polarity: overt However, as shown in (4c), some expressions of affirmative polarity are in fact encoded overtly: these cases typically involve some type of emphatic affirmation rather than a neutral assertion. Danckaert (2013) suggests that quidem is such a marker of emphatic affirmative polarity. This claim ties in with (but is clearly distinct from) the standard view which says that quidem is a pure focus marker (Adams 1994;Spevak 2010).…”

“…Crucially, in the syntactic literature it has been claimed that this optional particle typically encodes affirmative or negative polarity (Merchant 2003;Winkler 2005). 5 Finally, from the fact that quidem frequently co-occurs with modal adverbs like certe, sane and profecto, it was concluded in Danckaert (2013) that quidem does not have any modal force.…”

“…3 Second, it has recently been claimed that quidem also denotes (emphatic) affirmative polarity: this last point was proposed by Danckaert (2013), whose account is summarized in the following section.…”

“…The main aim of this paper is to elucidate under which pragmatic conditions quidem can be used felicitously. Before starting the discussion, I first give a brief overview of two recent treatments of quidem, one proposed by Kroon (2004Kroon ( , 2005Kroon ( , 2009Kroon ( , 2011, and one by Danckaert (2013).…”