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A simpler analysis of English negation (and the Bulgarian definite marker)

ORCiD logo with link | University of Delaware
Published online: 28 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.24027.bru
Abstract
I propose a maximally simple analysis of English negation in which both not and n’t are adjuncts. Not is a phrasal adjunct that can attach to any category, while n’t is a head adjunct that strictly selects the category AuxV. I show that this proposal captures all the facts of English negation, without needing a NegP or even multiple NegPs, as other recent work proposes (e.g., Thoms, Gary, David Adger, Caroline Heycock, E. Jamieson & Jennifer Smith. 2023. English contracted negation revisited: Evidence from varieties of Scots. Language 991. 726–759. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). There is also no need for a distinction between sentential negation and constituent negation. Do-support follows from the same mechanisms as insertion of auxiliaries generally. I also extend the analysis of n’t to the definite marker in Bulgarian, and show that it accounts for the placement of this element without the need for post-syntactic mechanisms (as in, e.g., . 2022. Transparency of inflectionless modifiers for Bulgarian definite marker placement. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 301. 1–13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Crucial to the proposal is the idea that the syntax is built top-down or left-to-right rather than bottom-up as in most approaches.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The proposal for not
    • 2.1A brief note on verbal morphology
    • 2.2The distribution of not
    • 2.3Sentential negation versus constituent negation
    • 2.4Summary
  • 3.The proposal for n’t
    • 3.1N’t is an affix, not contraction
    • 3.2N’t is an adjunct
    • 3.3Adjuncts can be selective
    • 3.4The highest/first generalization
    • 3.5Explaining the generalization
    • 3.6Flexible adjuncts?
    • 3.7There can be only one
    • 3.8Spelling out the derivation for English n’t
    • 3.9Do-support
    • 3.10Phrasal not
    • 3.11Subject-auxiliary inversion
    • 3.12Imperatives
    • 3.13Scope
    • 3.14Summary
  • 4.High negation and low negation
  • 5.Scots
  • 6.Extension to the Bulgarian definite marker
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (79)
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