An expletive negation unlike any other in Québec French

This paper explores 'expletive' uses of the negative marker pas in Québec French (QF) (Kemp 1982, Larriv'ee 1996), which despite checking every diagnostic for expletive negation (ExN), do not pattern with previously documented cases of ExN. We show that most previous accounts of ExN c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gonzalez, Aurore, Royer, Justin
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:255873
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/255873
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.119
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Expletive negation
Negative polarity
Québec French
Descripción
Sumario:This paper explores 'expletive' uses of the negative marker pas in Québec French (QF) (Kemp 1982, Larriv'ee 1996), which despite checking every diagnostic for expletive negation (ExN), do not pattern with previously documented cases of ExN. We show that most previous accounts of ExN can thus not explain ExN pas's distribution. Building on van der Wouden's (1994) approach to ExN as negative polarity items (NPIs), and adopting an alternative-based account of NPIs (Krifka 1995, Lahiri 1998, Chierchia 2013, a.o.), we propose a preliminary analysis of ExN pas as part of a 'complex' NPI. That is, ExN pas realizes one of two pieces in the composition of an NPI: (i) it does not contribute existential quantification of its own, but (ii) requires that the predicative existential expression it co-occurs with activate a set of domain alternatives. Though this analysis stands out in making a number of correct predictions about the distribution of ExN pas, it faces an empirical challenge, which we ultimately leave as an issue for future work.