On the Behaviour of the English Negative Quantifier no in Sentential Negation Tests
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28914/Atlantis-2022-44.1.12Abstract
In this article I show that, when compared to other English negative quantifiers, no behaves unexpectedly when diagnostic tests of sentential negation are applied. I argue that this can be accounted for within an approach to negative quantifiers that assumes them to be complex syntactic objects involving a negative head and an existential Determiner Phrase (DP) and that allows Parallel Merge to generate multidominant phrase markers. Within this view, the verb selects just the existential part of the negative quantifier, while Negation (Neg) also (Parallel) Merges with it. In the case of no I claim that, unlike what is the case for other negative quantifiers, Neg only targets the D head rather than the entire existential DP. This results in a complex left-branching structure that, as such, needs to be transferred upon Merge, thus freezing Neg in the Tense Phrase (TP). As TP is the syntactic domain that sentential negation tests are sensitive to, no can do nothing but behave consistently in
sentential negation tests, showing, unlike other negative quantifiers, no asymmetry related to the position where it occurs.
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Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España
Grant numbers FFI2017-82547-P -
Generalitat de Catalunya
Grant numbers 2017SGR634
