Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:46:01.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the syntactic derivation of negative sentence adverbials*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Paul Rowlett
Paul Rowlett
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Languages, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We consider recent Government-Binding work on sentential negation, e.g. by Pollock, and evaluate a fundamental assumption made about the syntax of negative clauses. While accepting that ne is generated as the head of NegP, we reject the dual claim that pas is characteristically: (a) a maximal projection, and (b) base-generated as the specifier of ne. We offer a three-sided argument against such an analysis, invoking: (a) the incompatibility of the proposal with the status of pas as a nominal; (b) the interaction between pas, etc, and indefinite direct objects; and (c) the syntax of ‘adverbials’. We go on to consider Obenauer's work on ‘quantification at a distance’ and Battye's work on ‘nominal quantification’. On the basis of this work, we posit that pas is generated lower in clause structure, either VP-adjoined or as the head of a determiner-less direct object DP.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 39 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abney, S. (1987). The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Baker, M. C. (1985). The mirror principle and morphosyntactic explanation. Linguistic Inquiry, 16:373–416.Google Scholar
Baker, M. C. (1988). Incorporation. A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing. Chicago: University of Chicago PressGoogle Scholar
Battye, A. C. (1989). Aspects of Quantification in French in its Regional and Diachronic Varieties. Draft MS. University of York.Google Scholar
Battye, A. C. (1991). Partitive and pseudo-partitive revisited: reflections on the status of ‘de’ in French. Journal of French Language Studies, 1:21–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belletti, A. (1990). Generalized Verb Movement. Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier.Google Scholar
Belletti, A. (1992). Verb Positions; NP Positions. Evidence from Italian. MS. University of Geneva/Scuola Normale di Pisa.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1974). The Amherst Lectures. Unpublished lecture notes distributed by Documents Linguistiques, University of Paris VII.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1986a). Knowledge of Language. New York: Praeger Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1986 b). Barriers. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Emonds, J. E. (1976). A Transformational Approach to English Syntax. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gaatone, D. (1992). De négatif entre la syntaxe et la sémantique. Langue Française, 94: 93–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, L. and Zanuttini, R. (1991). Negative heads and the Neg Criterion. The Linguistic Review, 8:233–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kayne, R. S. (1975). French Syntax: The Transformational Cycle. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kayne, R. S. (1991). Romance clitics, verb movement, and PRO. Linguistic Inquiry, 22:647–686.Google Scholar
Laka, I. (1990). Negation in Syntax: On the Nature of Functional Categories and Projections, PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Martineau, F. (1992). Movement of Negative Adverbs in French. MS. University of Ottawa.Google Scholar
Milner, J.-Cl. (1978). Cyclicité successive, comparatives, et cross-over en français (première partie). Linguistic Inquiry, 9:673–693.Google Scholar
Obenauer, H.-G. (1983). Une quantification non-canonique: la quantification à distance. Langue Française, 58:66–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obenauer, H.-G. (1984). On the identification of empty categories. The Linguistic Review, 4: 153–202.Google Scholar
Ouhalla, J. (1990). Sentential negation, relativised minimality and the aspectual status of auxiliaries. The Linguistic Review, 7:183–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, J.-Y. (1989). Verb movement, universal grammar, and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry, 20:365–424.Google Scholar
Rivero, M.-L. (1991). Long head movement and negation: Serbo-Croatian vs. Slovak and Czech. The Linguistic Review, 8:319–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, I. G. (1991). Long Head Movement in Romance. Paper presented at the Workshop on Romance Syntax, Institute of Romance Studies, University of London, UK, 14.12.91.Google Scholar
Roberts, I. G. (1992). The Syntax of Inversion. Lecture course, GISSL, University of Girona, Spain.Google Scholar
Rowlett, P. (1992). On the D-structure position of negative sentence adverbials in French. University of Salford Department of Modern Languages Working Papers in Language and Linguistics, 12.Google Scholar
Rowlett, P. (forthcoming). Pas de deux. MS. University of Salford.Google Scholar
Selkirk, E. (1977). Some remarks on the noun phrase structure. In: Culicover, et al. (eds.), Formal Syntax. New York: Academic Press, pp. 285–316.Google Scholar
Sportiche, D. (1988). A theory of floating quantifiers and its corollaries for constituent structure. Linguistic Inquiry, 19:425–449.Google Scholar
Williams, E. S. (1991). French pas and English not. Paper presented at the Workshop on Romance Syntax, Institute of Romance Studies, University of London, UK, 14.12.91.Google Scholar
Zanuttini, R. (1991). Syntactic Properties of Sentential Negation: A Comparative Study of Romance Languages. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar