Cover not available

In:Negation and Contact: With special focus on Singapore English
Edited by Debra Ziegeler and Zhiming Bao
[Studies in Language Companion Series 183] 2017
► pp. 81–114

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

Chapter 5
What is Strict Negative Concord

Lessons from French Based Creoles

 | Rutgers University, L2C2, CNRS, Université de Lyon
Published online: 31 May 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.183.05dep
Abstract
Two empirical predictions derive from current accounts of Strict Negative Concord; either their NCI should be universal expressions out-scoping negation, or their doubling negation should be expletive. Based on a comparative analysis of Strict NC in Haitian Creole (HC) and Mauritian Creole (MC), the paper shows that neither prediction is confirmed. On the one hand, both HC and MC NCIs are non-negative expressions with existential, not universal, force. On the other hand, although HC, but not MC, features expletive negation, these obey a finiteness constraint not enforced in HC Strict NC. Concluding that expletive negation is not its hallmark characteristic, I argue that Strict NC features rather a particular type of existential NPIs whose licensing requirement can be satisfied under reconstruction (Déprez et al. 2015).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Comparative properties of HC and Mauritian Creole NCIs
    • 2.1Where Haitian and Mauritian NCIs beg to differ
      • 2.1.1Haitian NCIs in NPI contexts
      • 2.1.2Mauritian Creole NCI in NPI contexts
    • 2.2Similarities between Haitian and Mauritian NCIs
      • 2.2.1Modification
      • 2.2.2Subject doubling and fragment answers
  • 3.A theoretical proposal: NCIs in Strict NC are NPIs that can be licensed under reconstruction
    • 3.1Licensing in preverbal subject position
    • 3.2Fragment answers
  • 4.Expletive negation
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
References
Biberauer, Teresa & Zeijlstra, Hedde. 2012. Negative Concord in Afrikaans: Filling a typological gap. Journal of Semantics 29(3): 345–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chierchia, Genaro. 2013. Logic in Grammar. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 1993. A riddle on negation in Haitian. Probus 5: 63–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Déprez, Viviane. 1997. Two types of Negative Concord. Probus 9(2): 103–144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. The roots of Negative Concord in French and French-based Creoles. In Language Creation and Language Change: Creole, Diachrony and Development, Michel. DeGraff (ed.), 375–428. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Parallel (A)symmetries and the Internal Structure of Negative Expressions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18(2): 253–342. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Atoms of negation: An outside-in micro-parametric approach to negative concord. In The Evolution of Negation: Beyond the Jespersen Cycle, Pierre Larrivée & Richard Ingham (eds), 221–272. Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. ‘NC vs. DN: A macroparametric variation? What can an experimental investigation tell us?’ Paper presented at the Linguistic Symposium of Romance Languages 44, London, University of Western Ontario.
. To appear. What is negative in Haitian Creole? A reply to Vincent Homer. In Déprez & Henri.
Déprez, Viviane & Martineau, France. 2004. Micro-parametric variation and Negative Concord. In Contemporary Approaches to Romance Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 258], Julie Auger, Clancy Clements & Barbara Vance (eds), 139–158. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Déprez, Viviane, Tubau, Susagna, Cheylus, Anne & Espinal, Maria Teresa. 2015. Double negation in a negative concord language: An experimental investigation. Lingua 163: 75–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Déprez, Viviane & Henri, Fabiola. To appear. Negation and Negative Concord: The View from Creoles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
den Dikken, Marcel. 1998. Predicate inversion in DP. In Possessors, Predicates and Movement in the Determiner Phrase [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 22], Artemis Alexiadou & Chris Wilder (eds), 177–214. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Espinal, Maria Teresa. 2007. Licensing expletive negation and negative concord in Catalan and Spanish. In La négation dans les langues romanes [Linguisticae Investigationes Supplementa 26], Franck Floricic (ed.), 49–74. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henri, Fabiola. To appear. Negation and Negative Concord in Mauritian Creole. In Déprez & Henri, to appear.
Giannakidou, Anastasia. 2000. Negative … concord. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18: 457–523. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. N-words and Negative Concord. In The Syntax Companion, Vol. 3, Ch. 45, Martin Everaert, Henk van Riemsdijk, Rob Goedemans & Bart Hollebrandse (eds), 327–391. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoeksema, Jack. 2012. On the natural history of Negative Polarity Items. Linguistic Analysis 38(1–2).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Homer, Vicent. 2013. On the nonexistence of negative quantifiers: The case of Haitian Creole, Paper presented at the Paris 8 Seminar on Creole Languages. October 7. Saint-Denis, France. <[URL]>
Horn, Laurence R. 1989. A Natural History of Negation. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iatridou, Sabine & Sichel, Ivy, 2011. Negative DPs, A-movement, and scope diminishment. Linguistic Inquiry 42(4): 595–629. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iordachioaia, Giannina & Richter, Franck. 2009. Negative Concord in Romanian as polyadic quantification. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Germany, Stefan Müller (ed.), 150–170. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard S. 1981. ECP extensions. Linguistic Inquiry 12: 93–133 (reprinted in Kayne (1994)).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
May, Robert. 1990. A note on quantifier absorption. The Linguistic Review 7: 121–127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merchant, Jason. 2001. The Syntax of Silence: Sluicing, Islands, and the Theory of Ellipsis. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pompilus, Pradel. 1976. Contribution à l’étude compare du creole et du français à partir du créole haitien: Morphologie et syntaxe. Port au Prince Haiti: Editions Caraibes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shimoyama, Junko. 2011. Japanese indeterminate negative polarity items and their scope. Journal of Semantics 28: 413–450. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Swart, Henriette. 2010. Expression and Interpretation of Negation: An OT Typology. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Swart, Henriette & Ivan A. Sag 2002. Negation and negative concord in Romance. Linguistics and Philosophy 25: 373–417. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Syea, Anand. 2013. The Syntax of Mauritian Creole. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szabolcsi, Anna. 1981. The semantics of Topic/Focus articulation. In Formal Methods in the Study of Language, Jeroen Groenendijk, Theo Janssen & Martin Stokhof (eds), 513–540. Amsterdam: Mathematical Center.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yoon, Suwon. 2011. “Not” in the Mood: The Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics of Evaluative Negation. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Parametric variation in subordinate evaluative negation: Korean/Japanese versus others. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 22: 133–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeijlstra, Hedde. 2004. Sentential Negation and Negative Concord. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Negative concord is syntactic agreement. Ms, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. There is only one way to agree. The Linguistic Review 29: 491–539. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

O’Grady, William
2025. Roots of Syntax: Anaphora and Negation in Creoles. In The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax, ► pp. 96 ff. DOI logo
ESPINAL, M. TERESA, ELOI PUIG-MAYENCO, URTZI ETXEBERRIA & SUSAGNA TUBAU
2024. On the status of NCIs: An experimental investigation on so-called Strict NC languages. Journal of Linguistics 60:4 ► pp. 715 ff. DOI logo
Manzini, Maria Rita & Diego Pescarini
2024. Negative concord by phase: multiple downward agree and the parametrization of edge features. The Linguistic Review 41:4 ► pp. 661 ff. DOI logo
Déprez, Viviane & Jeremy Daniel Yeaton
2022. On the prosody of French ambiguous multiple negative sentences.. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 7:1 DOI logo
Déprez, Viviane
2018. What is negative in Haitian Creole? Negative Concord Items, sentential, constituent and expletive negation. In Negation and Negative Concord [Contact Language Library, 55], ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Déprez, Viviane & Fabiola Henri
2018. Conclusions. In Negation and Negative Concord [Contact Language Library, 55], ► pp. 313 ff. DOI logo
Déprez, Viviane & Fabiola Henri
2018. Negation and negative concord. In Negation and Negative Concord [Contact Language Library, 55], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue