Negation and Negative Concord in Middle Dutch

Hoeksema, Jacob

doi:10.1075/cilt.155.08hoe

Cited by 67 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…the original negative adverb is first weakened, then found insufficient and therefore strengthened, generally through some additional word, and this in turn may be felt as the negative proper and may then in course of time be subject to the same development as the original word' (Jespersen 1917: 4), quoted by Horn (1989: 452 The trajectory of the Jespersen cycle is well documented for English (Jespersen 1917, 1924, 1933, Horn 1989, Mazzon 2004), French (Bréal 1897, 1900, Jespersen 1917, Horn 1989, Godard 2004, and Dutch (Hoeksema 1997, Zeijlstra 2004 (12) and (13): (12) Obviously, Creole languages do not constitute a straightforward historical development of the standard language, so the sentences in (14) do not sketch the next step in the development of modern French. In fact, there may be sufficient pressure from other word order principles to block the development of a preverbal marker in modern French.…”

Section: Patterns Of Diachronic Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The trajectory of the Jespersen cycle is well documented for English (Horn 1989, Mazzon 2004, French (Bréal 1900, Horn 1989, Godard 2004, and Dutch (Hoeksema 1997, Zeijlstra 2004 The preverbal negation ne in Old French is reinforced by the post-verbal marker pas, which leads to the discontinuous negation ne..pas in modern written French. The discontinuous negation is currently giving away to a single post-verbal negation in spoken French, even in the higher registers (Ashby 1981(Ashby , 2001).…”

Section: The Jespersen Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Den Besten (1986), Hoeksema (1997), van der Wouden (1997), Giannakidou (1998) and Zeijlstra (2004) refer to type I languages as 'negative doubling', 'proper' or 'strict' negative concord.…”

Section: Type I: Obligatory Presence Of Negation Markermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Type Ii: No Co-occurrence Of Negative Indefinites and Negatimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A preverbal expression of negation (nword or SN) is thus motivated by the desire to express negation at the clausal (propositional) level. Den Besten (1986), Hoeksema (1997), van der Wouden (1994, Giannakidou (1997Giannakidou ( , 1998 and Zeijlstra (2004) refer to type III languages as 'negative spread', 'improper' or 'non-strict' negative concord.In the remainder of this chapter, we will provide an account of all three types of negative concord languages in an extension of the bi-directional OT grammar developed in Chapter 4. 164 concord constructions.…”

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Expression and Interpretation of Negation

Swart

2010

Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory

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Chapter summaryThis chapter introduces the empirical scope of our study on the expression and interpretation of negation in natural language. We start with some background notions on negation in logic and language, and continue with a discussion of more linguistic issues concerning negation at the syntax-semantics interface. We zoom in on crosslinguistic variation, both in a synchronic perspective (typology) and in a diachronic perspective (language change). Besides expressions of propositional negation, this book analyzes the form and interpretation of indefinites in the scope of negation. This raises the issue of negative polarity and its relation to negative concord. We present the main facts, criteria, and proposals developed in the literature on this topic. The chapter closes with an overview of the book. We use Optimality Theory to account for the syntax and semantics of negation in a cross-linguistic perspective. This theoretical framework is introduced in Chapter 2. Negation in logic and languageThe main aim of this book is to provide an account of the patterns of negation we find in natural language. The expression and interpretation of negation in natural language has long fascinated philosophers, logicians, and linguists. Horn's (1989) Natural history of negation opens with the following statement: "All human systems of communication contain a representation of negation. No animal communication system includes negative utterances, and consequently, none possesses a means for assigning truth value, for lying, for irony, or for coping with false or contradictory statements." A bit further on the first page, Horn states: "Despite the simplicity of the one-place connective of propositional logic (¬p is true if and only if p is not true) and of the laws of inference in which it participate (e.g. the Law of Double Negation: from ¬¬p infer p, and vice versa), the form and function of negative statements in ordinary Chapter 1 2 language are far from simple and transparent. In particular, the absolute symmetry definable between affirmative and negative propositions in logic is not reflected by a comparable symmetry in language structure and language use." The scope of this book is more modest than Horn's seminal study, but we will nevertheless attempt to work out some of the issues highlighted by Horn. In particular, we will be concerned with negation as a universal category of human language, with negation as the marked member of the pair , and with cross-linguistic variation in the marking and interpretation of propositional negation and negative indefinites. Markedness of negationThe fact that all human languages establish a distinction between affirmative and negative statements is the starting point of the investigation in Chapters 3 through 6.The relation with animal communication systems is investigated in Chapter 7, where we draw implications for language genesis from our study of negation in L2 acquisition. Modern studies on animal communication make it possible to assign a ment...

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Section: Patterns Of Diachronic Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Jespersen Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Den Besten (1986), Hoeksema (1997), van der Wouden (1997), Giannakidou (1998) and Zeijlstra (2004) refer to type I languages as 'negative doubling', 'proper' or 'strict' negative concord.…”

Section: Type I: Obligatory Presence Of Negation Markermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Type Ii: No Co-occurrence Of Negative Indefinites and Negatimentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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