Double Negation in Negative Concord Languages

Abstract

This chapter investigates double negation readings in negative concord languages. This may look like a contradiction in terms. After all, negative concord is a system in which multiple expressions of negation combine to convey a single negation reading. If so, then how is it possible to express double negation in such languages? I will discuss three cases in which this arises. No resumptive negative quantifier is built in combinations of sentence negation with constituent negation (Section 1) and multiple clause configurations (Section 2). Resumptive negative quantification is defined over negative quantifiers, but not affixal negation. Furthermore, it is a clause-bound phenomenon, so Neg-expressions in different clauses lead to multiple negation readings in standard negative concord languages. The ambiguities between double negation and negative concord readings of sequences of Neg-expressions play an important role in de Swart and Sag’s(2002) analysis. A stochastic OT analysis is developed for such cases, in which overlapping constraints in the semantics allow for ambiguities (Section 3). The third and most unusual case of double negation discussed in this chapter arises in the interaction of sentential negation and negative indefinites, as found in French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Afrikaans, West Flemish, Hungarian, and Welsh. Section 4 confirms that double negation readings are not expected under the strong bidirectional OT analysis developed in Chapters 4 and 5 . A weak bidirectional OT analysis is developed to account for these cases (Section 5).