Negation Raising: Logical Form and Linguistic Variation

Abstract

With this book, the author explores the syntax of negative sentences, tracing the fine-grained contours of linguistic variation and offering a detailed cartographic representation of the distribution of negative markers. The goal is to show the existing tension in language between the variable surface realization of negation and its stable logical representation. In order to solve this tension and to unify the interpretation of negative sentences, a mapping operation, LF-Negation Raising, is proposed. Verbal arguments related to negation such as n-words, negative quantifiers and negative polarity items are also considered, in order to derive negative concord phenomena from the inner semantics of nominal constituents.

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