2: Doubling Of Clitics And Doubling By Clitics: The Case Of Negation

Abstract

This chapter discusses the cases of doubling of the clitic negation on either side of a subject clitic, as seen for instance in the Northern Tuscan dialect of Viano in the second person singular. While in standard Italian or in the Tuscan dialects exemplified so far, negation is expressed by a negative clitic, it is well-known that in French or in many Northern Italian dialects the clitic negation is obligatorily doubled by a negative adverb. Northern Italian dialects provide evidence in favor of a non-purely etymological connection between negation and partitive assignment to the internal argument of the verb. The idea that the lexicalization of the negative polarity adverb is subsumed by that of the negative polarity argument can be given a more precise interpretive content. At LF interface the negative polarity argument implies the presence of a sentential Neg operator. Keywords: LF interface; negative polarity adverb; negative polarity argument; Northern Tuscan dialect; subject clitic