Een typologie van negatie in optimaliteitstheorie.

1. Een typologie van negatie in optimaliteitstheorie. Henriëtte de Swart Frans/UiL-OTS, Utrecht

2. Expressing negation • Natural languages: ways to express negation/denial: not. • First-order propositional connective  • Natural languages: negative indefinites, nobody. • First-order quantifier x.

3. Negation and cognition • Assumption: something like or something equivalent to first-order logic part of general human cognition. • Prediction: negation and negative quantifiers behave alike across languages. • Prediction falsified by data.

4. DN and NC • Nobody said nothing. (Eng) xy • Niemand zei niets. (Dutch) xy • Nadie miraba a nadie. (Spa) xy • Nessuno ha parlato con nessuno. (Ital) xy • Personne n’a rien dit. (Fr) ambiguous

5. Negation in context • Double negation versus negative concord • negative quantifiers versus n-words. • In isolation: same form, same meaning. • In a sequence: same forms, different meanings.

6. What to do? • Many theories about negation/negative quantifiers in language. • Key: languages make use of the same underlying mechanisms, but exploit the relation between form and meaning in different ways.

7. Speaker-hearer speaker hearer Intend  Phrase  Speak Comprehend  Understand  Hear Speech sound

8. Approach: OT • OT syntax: choose the optimal form for a given meaning. • OT semantics: choose the optimal interpretation for a given form. • Bi-directional OT: evaluate pairs of form and meaning.

9. Propositional negation • Production issue: how does a language express the meaning p? • FaithNeg: reflect non-affirmativity of the input in the output. • Faithfulness constraint • ‘double-edged’ constraint: both in OT syntax, and in OT semantics.

10. Markedness of negation • *Neg: avoid negation in the output. • Markedness constraint • FaithNeg >> *Neg • Assumption: ranking fixed across languages • Negation is marked in form/meaning.

11. Propositional negation 

12. Negative sentences • John is not sick. [English] • No vino Pedro. [Spanish] Not came Pedro. • Non piove. [Italian] Not rains. ‘It doesn’t rain.’

13. Indefinites under negation • Production: how do languages express the meaning x1 x2 x3 P(x1,x2, x3)? • Three cases: • plain indefinites, • negative polarity items, • n-words.

14. indefinites • Example: Dutch, Turkish, .. • Ik heb niet onmiddellijk iets gekocht. I have not immediately something bought. • Niemand heeft iets aan iemand gezegd. No one has something to someone said. • Negation/negative quantifier

15. Negative polarity items • Languages in which plain indefinites are positive polarity items may use negative polarity items. • Example: English, Basque, .. • *I did not buy something • I did not buy anything. • Nobody said anything to anyone.

16. N-words • Languages in which plain indefinites are positive polarity items may use n-words. • N-words denote x in isolation, but express a single negative statement together with sentential negation or other n-words (x1 x2 x3).

17. Example: Spanish • A: Qué viste? B: Nade A: What did you see? B: nothing. • No vino nadie. Not came nobody. • Nadie maraba a nadie Nobody looked at nobody.

18. NPIs and n-words • N-words denote x in isolation, NPIs denote x. • NPIs have to be licensed, n-words are ‘self-licensing’. • Negative concord is limited to anti-additive contexts, NPIs occur in decreasing or non-veridical contexts.

19. N-words in OT • N-words mark ‘negative’ variables (Corblin and Tovena 2003). • Functional motivation: mark focus of negation (Haspelmath 1997). • In OT terms: constraint MaxNeg • MaxNeg: Mark the argument of a negative chain.

20. Constraint interaction • Relevant Rankings (OT syntax) • FaithNeg >> *Neg >> MaxNeg [indefinites] • FaithNeg >> MaxNeg >> *Neg [n-words]

21. Indefinites (production) 

22. N-word (production) 

23. Interpretation • Issue: Does a sequence of items that express x in isolation express a single or a double (multiple) negation. • InterpretNeg (IntNeg): Interpret all neg expressions in the input as contributing a negative meaning in the output.

24. Ranking • MaxNeg and IntNeg: mirror images of each other (syntax/semantics). • Relevant rankings to consider for interpretation: • FaithNeg >> *Neg >> IntNeg [NC] • FaithNeg >> IntNeg >> *Neg [DN]

25. DN (interpretation) 

26. NC (Interpretation) 

27. Bi-directional grammar • Negative concord: MaxNeg >> *Neg >> IntNeg ‘Mark negative variables’ • Double negation: IntNeg >> *Neg >> MaxNeg ‘Fully compositional meaning’

28. Results so far • Whether a neg expression is interpreted as a negative quantifier or as an n-word depends on bi-directional grammar, not on lexical meaning. • Constraints are universal, ranking is language-specific. • Reranking = typology in OT

29. Other rankings? • Three constraints allow 6 rankings: • MaxNeg >> *Neg >> IntNeg NC • MaxNeg >> IntNeg >> *Neg unstable • *Neg >> MaxNeg >> IntNeg unstable • IntNeg >> MaxNeg >> *Neg unstable • IntNeg >> *Neg >> MaxNeg DN

30. Sentential negation • Haspelmath (1997): subtypes of negative indefinites, depending on relation to marker of negation. • Class I: SN mandatory (Rumanian, Greek, Afrikaans, Polish,..) • Class II: SN impossible (Dutch, English) • Class III: SN with postverbal n-words only (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese..).

31. Class III: asymmetry • Preverbal versus postverbal n-words, e.g. Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, .. • Maria non ha parlato con nessuno. Maria not has talked to nobody. • Nessuno ha parlato con nessuno. • *Maria ha parlato di niente con nessuno • *Nessuno non ha parlato con nessuno.

32. Class III in OT • NegFirst: Negation is preverbal (Horn) • Preverbal n-word with SN.

33. Preverbal n-word • Relevant for production only!

34. Class I: mandatory SN • Negative indefinites always co-occur with SN: Rumanian, Greek, Polish,.. • Nikt nie przyszekl [Polish] • Nobody SN came. • Nie widzialam nikogo. • SN saw nobody

35. Class I in OT • MaxSN: a negative clause must bear a marker of sentential negation Relevant for production only!

36. Special Case: Catalan • En Pere no ha fet res. The Peter SN has done nothing. • *En Pere ha fet res. • Ningú (no) ha vist en Joan. Nobody (SN) has seen John. • Preverbal SN required for postverbal n-word, optional for preverbal n-word.

37. Postverbal n-word • NegFirst active: insertion of SN.

38. Pre-verbal n-word • MaxSN and *Neg equal in ranking.  

39. Special case: French • Written French: type I language, preverbal ne always required. • Il ne vient pas. Il ne dit rien. He NE comes not. He NE says nothing. • Spoken French: demotion of MaxSN.. • Il vient pas. Il dit rien.

40. Written French • Preverbal ànd postverbal n-words require ne.

41. Spoken French • Neither preverbal nor postverbal n-word requires ne.

42. Negative clauses • Written French

43. Negative clauses • Spoken French

44. Double negation • Double negation: pas + n-word. • Il n’est pas venu pour rien. • He NE has not come for nothing. • Weak bi-directional optimality: ‘superoptimality’. • Unmarked forms-unmarked meanings; marked forms-marked meanings

45. DN in French  

46. DN in Italian • Class III languages: block sentential negation with preverbal n-words. • Marginal DN readings, e.g. Italian (Zanuttini 1991). • Nessuno degli studenti nonè venuto. None of the students not is come. = None of the students hasn’t come.

47. Conclusions • DN languages fully compositional, NC languages mark ‘negative variables’. • Bi-directional OT grammar leads to typology of negation in terms of ranking. • Role of marker of SN: purely syntactic! • Weak bi-directional optimality explains DN readings in certain NC languages.

48. Research team: Petra Hendriks, Gerlof Bouma (Groningen), Helen de Hoop, Irene Krämer (Nijmegen), Henriëtte de Swart, Joost Zwarts (Utrecht) Conflicts in interpretation