Thoms, G., Adger, D., Heycock, C., Jamieson, E. and Smith, J. (2023) English contracted negation revisited: evidence from varieties of Scots. Language, 99(4), pp. 726-759. (doi: 10.1353/lan.2023.a914192)
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Abstract
This article is concerned with the syntactic position of negation and how that connects to negation’s morphological realization and semantic and pragmatic effects. We focus on the case of contracted negation in English, which may appear both before and after the grammatical subject, and which has been classically analyzed as involving a single syntactic element placed by syntactic rule into distinct linear positions. We argue that this analysis is incorrect and that, in fact, there are multiple negations in English which are not related by a syntactic movement rule. We use the rich and complex morphosyntactic and semantico-pragmatic variation in the behavior of negation in varieties of Scots to motivate the argument and to develop a new approach that comes with both empirical and theoretical advantages.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Negation, clitic, affix, microcomparative syntax, varieties of English, Scots. |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Smith, Professor Jennifer and Thoms, Dr Gary and Jamieson, Mx Elyse |
| Authors: | Thoms, G., Adger, D., Heycock, C., Jamieson, E., and Smith, J. |
| College/School: | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics |
| Journal Name: | Language |
| Publisher: | Linguistic Society of America |
| ISSN: | 0097-8507 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1535-0665 |
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