English Negative Concord, Negative Polarity, and Double Negation

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Abstract This article takes a close look at recent proposals that French (ne) … que exceptives are hidden comparatives involving two silent elements: a covert n-word and a phonologically unrealized autre ‘other’ introducing a partially elided comparative clausal standard headed by que ‘than’. I show that assuming the constant presence of an n-word in the exceptive construction allows us to provide inter alia a scopal treatment of the fact that (ne) … que exceptives in modal contexts are systematically ambiguous between an exclusive reading and a minimal sufficiency reading. As regards the comparative analysis of exceptives, I demonstrate that while the locality of association problem raised by (Homer. 2015. Ne … que and its challenges. In Ulrike Steindl, Thomas Borer, Huilin Fang, Alfredo García Pardo, Peter Guekguezian, Brian Hsu, Charlie O’Hara & Iris Chuoying Ouyang (eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 111–120. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.) can be resolved by assuming that in French, the standard of comparatives can be clausal or just nominal, the fact that (ne) … que displays a lexically-encoded, conventionalized meaning dependency on focus that is absent from its alleged comparative maximal phonological realization casts some serious doubt on the viability of the comparative analysis of French exceptives. Finally, I examine a number of contexts in which the n-word component of (ne) … que must be overt and argue that this constraint follows from the Intonational Phrase Edge Generalization.

On the comparative analysis of French (ne) … que exceptives

The goal of this paper is to offer a detailed description of sentences like (1), which I will label ‘minimal ne. . . que realizations’. It is a description in the sense that I make explicit the makeup of this structure: it contains hidden material, and I show what this material is (Section 2). It is also a description of the many theoretical problems posed by ne. . . que: the core problem arises when one compares minimal realizations such as (1) and total realizations (the ones in which all hidden material is pronounced), for it seems that the felicity conditions of the two are not the same; the solution to this paradox is to be found in the structural ambiguity of total realizations; and I show how one can single out the total realizations that minimal realizations are based upon (Section 3). Lastly, I show how to exploit this finding to investigate the semantic contribution (assertoric and non-assertoric) of ne. . . que; I also present what I think are the main challenges that a proper semantic analysis of the construction has to meet (Section 4).

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Ne...que and Its Challenges

Sommaire Preface Andree BORILLO: Publications Michel AURNAGUE: Cas inessif du basque et connaissance du monde: l'expression de l'espace a-t-elle horreur du vide (semantique)? Inge BARTNING: Strategies d'acquisition dans l'emploi du genre et de l'accord adjectival en francais parle Anne CONDAMINES: Analyse des structures Nominalisation + de N, Nominalisation + N, Nominalisation + Adjectif relationnel dans un corpus specialise Laurence DANLOS: Discours causal et roles thematiques David GAATONE: Reflexions sur la syntaxe de 'ne ... que' Daniele GODARD et Jacques JAYEZ: Quels sont les faits? Maurice GROSS: Remarques sur la notion de pluriel Kerstin JONASSON: Felicitons cette chere Andree! Emploi de ( ??ce + nom propre' chez Pierre Magnan Georges KLEIBER: Il y a contexte et contexte Igor MEL'??C ??UK: Ni voyelles ni consonnes (une 'n'-ieme fois a propos des semi-voyelles espagnoles) Christian MOLINIER: Adverbes d'habitude et phrases habituelles Claude MULLER: Encore et toujours les modifieurs aspectuels: de 'encore' a 'toujours' Michele NOAILLY: ( ??Dans mon etat, dans l'etat qui est le mien': une variation insignifiante? Marc PLENAT: 'Poissonnaille', 'poiscail' (et 'poiscaille'): Forme et sens des derives et '-aille' Michel ROCHE: Quelques noms d'oiseaux Carlota S. SMITH: Cues to the small structure of texts Claude VANDELOIS: Une place pour chaque chose et chaque chose a sa place Co VET: Le passe simple, le passe compose et les regles d'interpretation discursive Carl VETTERS: A propos de l'imparfait apres 'si'

L'emprise du sens : structures linguistiques et interprétations : mélanges de syntaxe et de sémantique offerts à Andrée Borillo par un groupe d'amis, de collègues et de disciples

This paper examines the syntax of the French neque exceptive construction Although ne is typically analyzed as the negative head, and que as a complementizer, in this construction, the distribution of these morphemes is anything but typical In the interest of lexical economy, this paper provides an analysis for neque that assimilates the construction to the syntax of a reduced clausal comparative If the exception phrase following que is treated as the remnant of an elliptical clause adjoined to an optionally covert NPI, the syntactic properties of neque cease to be problematic

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Teresa O’Neill

Papers

The Syntax of ne...que Exceptives in French