Chapter 2 - Locus of Negation in Syntactic Structure

Summary

2.1 Position of negation in the hierarchical structure

The literature on the locus of negation in syntactic structure focuses primarily on the position of negation relative to the spine of the clause, the Inflectional Phrase (IP/TP), and whether the negation phrase (NegP) follows or precedes TP. Of particular debate is whether or not the locus of NegP is a parametric choice whereby the Individual/Internal Language (I-Language) of the speaker has the locus of NegP set to one of the two options available in universal grammar (UG). The alternative view is that NegP can project below or above TP and can have multiple positions within the structure, each with different syntactic and semantic effects. This chapter discusses both views and proposes a multi-locus analysis for negation in Arabic. After a discussion of these two views, I discuss key issues in the syntax of subjects, verb movement, and tense and aspect in Arabic. These topics are intimately related to the syntax of negation and the analyses presented in this and the subsequent chapters of this book. I then present the multi-locus analysis, advancing empirical and theoretical arguments from key word order generalizations involving adverbs, subjects, complementizers, and the verbal copula.

The parametric view (Ouhalla 1991) holds that all languages have NegP but differ in whether the NegP projection is on top of TP or on top of the verb phrase (VP). Under this proposal, NegP selects TP in languages whose tense and agreement morphemes are closer than the negative morpheme to the verb, while NegP selects VP in languages whose negative morpheme is closer to the verb than are the tense and agreement morphemes.

Ouhalla's arguments are based on facts from languages such as Turkish and Berber, illustrated in (1)a and (1)b, respectively. The following is an illustration (Ouhalla 1990: 136–37):

(1) a. john elmayi ser-me-di-o (Turkish)

John apples like-NEG-past(TNS)-3s(AGR)

‘John does not like apples.’

b. ur-y-sgh moha tadda (Berber)

NEG-3MSG-bought Moh House

‘Moha has not bought a house.’