Negation in Cape Verdean Creole

This paper focuses on the behavior of Negation of the Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) variety spoken in Santiago (ST), using Longobardi’s (2014) theoretical framework. We examine simple negation, as well as the semantic and distributional properties of N-words. Following Longobardi’s framework, we offer a parametric analysis of Negation in ST, accounting for the behavior of the negative morpheme ka and the syntax and semantics of N-words such as ningen “no one/anyone” and nada “nothing/anything”. Analyzing the behavior of Negation using Longobardi’s theoretical framework allows us to fine-tune his proposal in order to account for the data at hand: we propose that the typology of Neg and N-words in CVC points to a conceptually balanced system whereby the negator ka can be [+ NOT] or [−NOT] and the N-words can be [+NOT] or [−NOT] or [+ANY] or [−ANY]. To complete this typology in which N-words can be ambiguous between [+NOT, −ANY] and [−ANY, +NOT], we show that non N-words like algen ‘someone’ can be ambiguous between a negative operator and a non-negative item, giving rise to readings that are ambiguous between “anyone/no one” and “someone”. We argue that such lexical items may carry the features [−NOT, −ANY] or [−NOT, +ANY].