The (en)rich(ed) meaning of expletive negation

Delfitto, Denis; Melloni, Chiara; Vender, Maria

doi:10.1075/elt.00004.del

Cited by 8 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In general, we will find that the observation of Delfitto, Melloni & Vender (2019) that expletive negation in surprise negation sentences differs from all other types of expletive negation in terms of semantic/pragmatic effect (negation on the presuppositional vs. the implicational level) is in fact clearly reflected in syntactic position: while the expletive negator in surprise negation sentences is merged high in the functional left periphery (SDP in the broader topic field), the expletive negator in all other cases is TP-internal, being head-adjoined to T 0 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Finally, Delfitto, Melloni & Vender (2019), developing an idea introduced by Greco (2018, argue that expletive negation is a truth-value reversal operation, just like standard negation, however, its domain of operation is different. While standard negation operates on the asserted meaning of the utterance, expletive negation operates on a presupposition or an implicature of the utterance.…”

Section: Background and Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While standard negation operates on the asserted meaning of the utterance, expletive negation operates on a presupposition or an implicature of the utterance. This semantico-pragmatic analysis also attempts to give a unified account of expletive negation and metalinguistic negation, considering the former a special case of the latter (Delfitto, Melloni & Vender 2019).…”

Section: Background and Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…the speaker as a sentient, deictic argument" (Tenny 2000, 319). Note that according to Delfitto, Melloni & Vender (2019), the expletive negator expresses a strong speaker-oriented evaluation (that the speaker considers the asserted proposition unexpected and surprising).…”

Section: The Syntax Of Expletive Negation In Snegsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Greco (2019a) discusesses expletive negation in so-called surprise negation sentences (or Snegs) in Italian in a phase-theoretic framework, proposing that whether the same negative marker receives an expletive interpretation depends on whether it is merged in the v p P phase or later in the CP phase. Delfitto, Melloni & Vender (2019), developing an idea introduced by Greco (2018, argue that expletive negation is a truth-value reversal operation, just like standard negation, however, its domain of operation is different. While standard negation operates on the asserted meaning of the utterance, expletive negation operates on a presupposition or an implicature of the utterance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expletive negation in exclamatives – Evidence from Hungarian

2021

ALing

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This paper examines expletive negation in root clauses (surprise negation sentences and wh-exclamatives) in Hungarian. We argue that Hungarian has three distinct negation positions, each corresponding to a truth-reversal operation on a different level. When the negator nem ‘no’ is merged in the CP layer (in the head position of the Speaker Deixis Phrase), this yields surprise negation sentences, corresponding to negation at the level of presuppositions (expletive negation). The negator being merged as the head of NegP within the extended TP yields standard negation (at the propositional level). In wh-exclamatives, the negator is head-adjoined to T0, which results in negation at the level of implicatures (expletive negation). In addition to pointing out this mapping between syntactic position and semantic-pragmatic interpretation, we also argue that the data from Hungarian present a strong case against a raising analysis of expletive negation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Background and Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background and Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Syntax Of Expletive Negation In Snegsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expletive negation in exclamatives – Evidence from Hungarian

2021

ALing

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Semantically negative adverbial clause-linkage: ‘let alone’ constructions, expletive negation, and theoretical implications

Martínez

2023

Linguistic Typology

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One construction that has traditionally been neglected in the typological study of clause-linkage is that built on ‘let alone’ (e.g., the baby can’t even talk, let alone walk). The present study explores this construction in a convenience sample of 47 languages. There are languages in which ‘let alone’ clauses appear not only with a clause-linking device, but also with an optional standard negative marker. Moreover, there are languages in which standard negation is forbidden in the ‘let alone’ clause. Here it is shown that optional standard negation may be semantically empty or may have an expressive-evaluative layer of semantic interpretation. On the other hand, standard negation tends to be forbidden in ‘let alone’ clauses appearing with semantically monofunctional clause-linking devices. The paper further investigates whether the analysis advanced for ‘let alone’ clauses can be generalized to other semantically negative adverbial clauses: ‘without V-ing’, ‘instead of V-ing’, and ‘before’ clauses. It is demonstrated that in these latter adverbial clauses, standard negation may be forbidden or optional. Interestingly, unlike the situation with ‘let alone’ clauses, there are languages in which standard negation may be obligatory in the ‘without V-ing’, ‘instead of V-ing’, and ‘before’ clause. In this scenario, the adverbial relations are compositionally encoded by a standard negative marker together with a general marker.

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Precedence clauses in the world’s languages: negative markers need not be expletive

Olguín Martínez

2023

STUF - Language Typology and Universals

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Large-scale typological work on negation has so far ignored negation in adverbial clause-linkage. The present work makes inroads into this territory by analyzing the world-wide cross-linguistic variation in the expression of negation in precedence clauses (e.g. ‘before he arrived, we had already gone home’) in a variety sample of 155 languages. The research demonstrates that even when languages employ a clause-linking marker for conveying temporal precedence, negative markers may play an important role in that they may be obligatory, optional, or forbidden in the precedence clause. It is proposed that whether the clause-linking marker is semantically monofunctional or polyfunctional is the key to this puzzle. As for precedence clauses containing polyfunctional clause-linking markers and negative markers, it is shown that negation must not be considered expletive. With respect to precedence clauses occurring with monofunctional markers, it is proposed that the precedence clause tends not to license a negative marker. Moreover, it is shown that optional negative markers in precedence clauses may have an evaluative sense, which reflects the epistemic stance of the speaker. The paper also explores whether the analysis of precedence clauses put forward in the present research can be generalized to other adverbial clause-linkage constructions: negative concomitance clauses (e.g. ‘I cooked the soup without stirring it even once’).

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The (en)rich(ed) meaning of expletive negation

Cited by 8 publications

References 15 publications

Expletive negation in exclamatives – Evidence from Hungarian

Expletive negation in exclamatives – Evidence from Hungarian

Semantically negative adverbial clause-linkage: ‘let alone’ constructions, expletive negation, and theoretical implications

Precedence clauses in the world’s languages: negative markers need not be expletive

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