In this paper I argue, following proposals by Laka (1990), Aboh (2010), De Clercq (2013; 2020a), and Greco (2019; 2020ab) among others, that negation has a dedicated position in the left periphery where it takes wide scope over the lower sentential material. This position is separate and independent from the TP-level PolP, and it can convey sentential negation on its own. As evidence for this, I present data from Modern Irish concerning an emphatic marker known as Demonic Negation from McCloskey (2009; 2018). I argue that this element is a true semantic negator rather than a metalinguistic negator, and that it is base generated in a polar projection immediately dominating FocP, independently from the lower positions where sentential negation is standardly encoded. This has a broader relevance for the general theory of the syntactic encoding of negation, since it demonstrates that negative markers can be base-generated in their highest scope position, and thus that they need not always originate in the VP-layer as proposed in recent research. Additionally, the possibility of raising a constituent to the SpecFocP to the right of the Demonic Negation is exploited to express scalar negation and Focus/constituent negation, bypassing the Irish restriction which prevents negation from being expressed below the inflectional layer (Acquaviva 1996).
The syntax of emphatic negation in Modern Irish
D'Antuono, Nicola
2024
Abstract
In this paper I argue, following proposals by Laka (1990), Aboh (2010), De Clercq (2013; 2020a), and Greco (2019; 2020ab) among others, that negation has a dedicated position in the left periphery where it takes wide scope over the lower sentential material. This position is separate and independent from the TP-level PolP, and it can convey sentential negation on its own. As evidence for this, I present data from Modern Irish concerning an emphatic marker known as Demonic Negation from McCloskey (2009; 2018). I argue that this element is a true semantic negator rather than a metalinguistic negator, and that it is base generated in a polar projection immediately dominating FocP, independently from the lower positions where sentential negation is standardly encoded. This has a broader relevance for the general theory of the syntactic encoding of negation, since it demonstrates that negative markers can be base-generated in their highest scope position, and thus that they need not always originate in the VP-layer as proposed in recent research. Additionally, the possibility of raising a constituent to the SpecFocP to the right of the Demonic Negation is exploited to express scalar negation and Focus/constituent negation, bypassing the Irish restriction which prevents negation from being expressed below the inflectional layer (Acquaviva 1996).File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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