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Article published In: Postverbal negation
Edited by Olga Krasnoukhova, Johan van der Auwera and Mily Crevels
[Studies in Language 45:3] 2021
► pp. 598–620

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Clause-final negative particles in varieties of Swedish

Distribution, grammatical properties, and possible etymologies

ORCiD logo with link | Gothenburg University
Published online: 25 August 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19037.ros
Abstract
While the Swedish negator inte may be doubled in a final clause-external position, in both standard Swedish and dialects, many dialects also allow a final, clause-internal particle (e, i or ai) in negated clauses. FNPs occur in a coherent area around the Baltic Sea, and in contrast with doubling negation, they are possible both after both inte and aldrig ‘never’. FNPs are also used in questions and exclamations, contexts that disallow doubling negation. These particles may have developed from the former Swedish negator ej or from the common inte. An argument for the former alternative is that other dialectal phenomena that spread from central Sweden during the late Middle Ages have approximately the same geographic distribution. In the final section of the paper, some typological consequences and implications are discussed. Furthermore, it is argued that syntactic studies of non-standard varieties may reveal new insights of typological relevance.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Negation in Swedish and FNPs – a background
  • 3.Distribution and variation in form
    • 3.1Data sources
    • 3.2Formal variation and its distribution in Sweden
    • 3.3Formal variation and its distribution in Finland
    • 3.4Overview of the distribution and form of FNPs
  • 4.The grammatical properties of FNPs
  • 5.Two possible etymologies
  • 6.Some typological observations
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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