No and tampoco: a pragmatic distinction in Spanish negation

Abstract

Abstract Cases of variation between canonical and non-canonical negative forms are widespread across the world's languages. Typically, the difference between the forms is characterized as regulated by pragmatic factors, albeit fuzzy or undefined, such as “emphasis”: the non-canonical form conveys an “emphatic” meaning while the canonical form does not. In this paper I examine in depth one of these cases, heretofore unmentioned in the literature on negation: the distinction between the canonical negator no and non-canonical tampoco in mainly spoken Spanish. It is shown that the distinction between the two expressions is not regulated by “emphasis” at all, but instead constrained by a more specific set of pragmatic considerations. These are, first of all, the argumentatively de-realizing (Ducrot, Oswald, 1995. Les modificateurs derealisants. Journal of Pragmatics 24, 145–165 nature of tampoco versus the argumentative neutrality of no. And second, the special information-structural requirements of tampoco, requirements not shared by no: tampoco, as opposed to no, can only be used in denials of discourse-accessible propositions. From a theoretical perspective, the analysis illustrates how tools from modern pragmatic approaches can be employed to go beyond commonsense explanations based in intuitive notions like “emphasis”.