Summary and conclusions

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the central points argued for in the analyses chapters. The multi-locus analysis goes beyond the limitations of the parametric approach and can explain the rich variation and change in the syntax of negation. This multi-locus approach explains variation (and change) by looking into the interface between syntax on the one hand, and morphology and semantics on the other hand. This approach also provides a solid ground for investigating other syntactic categories such as the syntax of adverbs, subjects, tense and the left periphery. The ability to explain the syntactic behaviour of these categories (their co-occurrence restrictions, semantic ambiguities and subtle interpretational contrasts) leads to better understanding of key issues related to the syntax of subjects, the movement of adverbs and head movement of verbal and non-verbal predicates. Moreover, the multi-locus analysis of negation gives us insights into the syntactic licensing of a vital category of Negative Sensitive Items (NSIs) in Arabic. The syntactic licensing of these categories in Arabic bears on key theoretical issues in the cross-linguistic studies of negation and NSIs. Such issues include the syntactic licensing configurations for these items, their feature structure and availability of syntactic agreement with negation.