Partial and optional Negative Concord (NC) systems represent a challenge for any theory dealing with the syntax-semantics interface of negative dependencies. In this article I describe the NC concord system of Old Venetan varieties. These medieval North-Eastern Italian Dialects present a system of partial strict NC. More precisely, Old Venetian is a strict NC language, while Old Paduan and Old Veronese allow the presence of some negative words in the preverbal space without the preverbal sentential negator. In the article I argue, also on the basis of a comparison with modern Venetan dialects which have maintained a similar NC system, that strict NC, i.e. the presence of the preverbal negation, is a repair strategy emerging when the feature [uNeg] of negative words is blocked by other features, like [Focus], and is not able to make visible the covert negative operator Op.
Old Venetan and the typology of Negative Concord
Jacopo Garzonio
2021
Abstract
Partial and optional Negative Concord (NC) systems represent a challenge for any theory dealing with the syntax-semantics interface of negative dependencies. In this article I describe the NC concord system of Old Venetan varieties. These medieval North-Eastern Italian Dialects present a system of partial strict NC. More precisely, Old Venetian is a strict NC language, while Old Paduan and Old Veronese allow the presence of some negative words in the preverbal space without the preverbal sentential negator. In the article I argue, also on the basis of a comparison with modern Venetan dialects which have maintained a similar NC system, that strict NC, i.e. the presence of the preverbal negation, is a repair strategy emerging when the feature [uNeg] of negative words is blocked by other features, like [Focus], and is not able to make visible the covert negative operator Op.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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