Short negative replies in Spanish

Abstract

A short negative reply (also called a negative fragment) is a reply consisting of just negation and a remnant XP. 1 This construction has two variants in Spanish, which I will refer to as [XP no] and [no XP] replies -(1b) and (1c), respectively.(1) a.Who did you go to the movies with? b.Con Clara no c.No con Clara with C not not with CThe two types are not equivalent as answers to questions: while the [XP no] type can be considered the unmarked one, the [no XP] type typically has a corrective feel to it.I discuss this difference in Section 2, where I argue it can be reduced to the topic/focus status of the remnant XP.After this, I turn to the syntactic derivation.I will argue that both types of replies stem from an underlying full clause that undergoes PF deletion.In addition, I will suggest that, in certain contexts, the [no XP] type can be given an alternative, non-elliptical derivation.The rather interesting conclusion is that "constituent negation" is not a unified construction (cf.Etxepare n.d., who reaches the same conclusion on independent grounds).Rather, the exact structure of [no XP] fragments depends on the finer properties of the string in question.2. The meaning of the remnants 2. The discourse status of negative fragments Erteschik-Shir (1998:III) points out that negative replies (whether short or not) require a context.To exemplify, suppose that a friend calls me asking (2a).In

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