Cover not available

In:Negation and Negative Concord: The view from Creoles
Edited by Viviane Déprez and Fabiola Henri
[Contact Language Library 55] 2018
► pp. 191–210

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Elements of denial in Capeverdean

The negator ka and the properties of n-words

Published online: 12 December 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.55.09pra
Abstract
This paper aims at showing that Capeverdean, a Portuguese-based Creole, is a strict Negative Concord language. In fact, n-words (Laka 1990) like ningen ‘no.one’ and nada ‘nothing’ always co-occur with sentential negation, be they in preverbal or postverbal position. This means that they are prohibited in all non-negative clauses, including modal contexts. Syntactically, they show a behavior typical of weak Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) as described in Martins (2000). Following Giannakidou (2002), I propose that, semantically, these n-words are universal quantifiers with no intrinsic negative meaning. Finally, I briefly address the adverbs tioxi and nunka, which roughly mean ‘never’: the former is also a weak NPI but not a quantifier, the latter may be ambiguous between a strong and a weak NPI, and seems a quantifier.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Capeverdean n-words are weak NPIs
    • 2.1The distribution of ningen ‘no.one’ and nada ‘nothing’
    • 2.2Capeverdean n-words do not have an intrinsic negative meaning
  • 3.Capeverdean n-words are universal quantifiers
    • 3.1Capeverdean n-words are licensed locally and may be modified by almost
    • 3.2Capeverdean ningen has an inherent operator status
  • 4.The status of the adverbs nunka and tioxi
  • 5.Final remarks
  • Acknowledgments
  • List of abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
References (33)
References
Baptista, M. 2002. The Syntax of Cape Verdean Creole, the Sotavento Varieties [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 54]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brüser, M. & Santos, A. R., com a contribuição de E. Dengler & A. Blum, sob a direcção de J. Lang. 2002. Dicionário do Crioulo da Ilha de Santiago (Cabo Verde) com equivalentes de tradução em alemão e português. Tübingen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Champollion, L. 2011. Quantification and negation in event semantics. Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication 6: 1–23.
CrossRef DOI logo with hyperlink to permanent DOI
Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, J. & Pratas, F. 2013. Embedded null subjects in Capeverdean. Journal of Linguistics 49(1): 33–53. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Déprez, V. 1999. The roots of negative concord in French lexifier creoles. In Language Creation and Language Change: Creole, Diachrony and Development, M. DeGraff (ed), 375–427. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Espinal, M. T. 1998. Expletive negation, negative concord and feature checking. Ms, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giannakidou, A. 1997. The Landscape of Polarity Items. PhD dissertation, University of Groningen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000. Negative… concord? Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18: 457–523.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002. N-words and negative concord. <[URL]> Later published in The Blackwell Companion to Syntax , Vol. III, Chapter 45, M. Everaert & H. van Riemsdijk (eds), 327–391. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haegeman, L. & Zanuttini, R. 1991. Negative Heads and the Neg-criterion. The Linguistic Review 8: 233–251.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmberg, A. 2005. Is there a little Pro? Evidence from Finnish. Linguistic Inquiry 36: 533–564.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. 1917. Negation in English and other languages. Reprinted in 1962, Selected Writings of Otto Jespersen, 3–151. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klima, E. 1964. Negation in English. In The Structure of Language, J. Fodor & J. Katz (eds), 246–323. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, W. 1972. Negative attraction and negative concord in English Grammar. Language 48: 773–818.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laka, I. 1990. Negation in Syntax: On the Nature of Functional Categories and Projections. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martins, A. M. 2000. Polarity items in Romance: Underspecification and lexical change. In Diachronic Syntax. Models and Mechanisms, S. Pintzuk, G. Tsoulas & A. Warner (eds), 191–219. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matos, G. 2003. Aspectos Sintácticos da Negação. In Gramática da língua Portuguesa, Mateus et al. (eds), Cap. 19. Lisboa: Editorial Caminho.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Modesto, M. 2000. On the Identification of Null Arguments. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nicolis, M. 2005. On Pro Drop. PhD dissertation, University of Siena.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pina, E. 2006. Aspectos da estrutura da frase e da negação frásica no cabo-verdiano (variante de Santiago) e no português europeu – um estudo sintáctico comparativo. MA dissertation, FLUL.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pratas, F. 2002. O Sistema Pronominal do Caboverdiano. MA dissertation, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. Tense Features and Argument Structure in Capeverdean Predicates. PhD dissertation, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. States and temporal interpretation in Capeverdean. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2008 – Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’ Groningen 2008 [Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2], R. Bok-Bennema, B. Kampers-Manhe, B. Hollebrandse (eds), 215–231. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012a. ‘I know the answer’: A perfect state in Capeverdean. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2010 – Selected papers from ‘Going Romance 24’, Leiden, 2010 [Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 4], I. Franco, S. Lusini & A. Saab (eds), 65–86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012b. CV Words: oral data from Cape Verde. <[URL]>
2014. The perfective, the progressive and the (dis)closure of situations: Comment on the paper by María J. Arche. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 32(3): 833–853. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2018. Progressive forms and meanings: the curious case of Capeverdean. Estudos de Lingüistica Galega 10: 103–128.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rooryck, J. 1994. On two types of underspecification: Towards a theory shared by syntax and phonology. Probus 6: 207–233.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tubau, S. 2008. Negative Concord in English and Romance: Syntax-morphology Interface Conditions on the Expression of Negation. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zanuttini, R. 1991. Syntactic Properties of Sentential Negation: A Comparative Study of Romance Languages. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. Re-examining negative clauses. In Studies in Honor of Richard S. Kayne: Paths Towards Universal Grammar, G. Cinque, J. Koster, J. -Y. Pollock, L. Rizzi & R. Zanuttini (eds), 427–451. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1997. Negation and Clausal Structure: A Comparative Study of Romance Languages. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwarts, F. 1995. Nonveridical contexts. Linguistic Analysis 25: 286–312.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue