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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear Christopher (and all),<br>
thanks for raising the issue of NEG-raising! In light of your mail
and the response by David Gil I would like to make two comments
and one request on what you two observed.<br>
In his classical paper on complementation Noonan (2007 [1985]:
100f.) gave examples with NEG-raising in English with the
CTP-verbs "think, believe, want". He gave the examples cited
below, the first pair coincides with yours. Now, in a footnote (f.
21) Noonan remarked that sentence (214b) is ambiguous, since it
allows for both a reading with and without NEG-raising (i.e. in
the latter case there would only negation of the CTP). He added
that this ambiguity might be conditioned by "a
commitment/non-commitment interpretation of the speaker's
evaluation of the complement proposition" (with further
references).<br>
<br>
(214a) I think that Floyd didn't hit Roscoe.<br>
(214b) I don't think that Floyd hit Roscoe.<br>
<br>
(215a) Zeke believes that Martians don't live in caves.<br>
(215b) Zeke doesn't believe that Martians live in caves.<br>
<br>
(216a) Hugh wants Mary Ann not to win.<br>
(216b) Hugh doesn't want Mary Ann to win.<br>
<br>
David Gil wrote that "'I don't think John is a werewolf' cannot
mean 'I think that John is not a werewolf'". Would other native
speakers judge the same way?<br>
<br>
Thus, two questions arise (in my view). First, wouldn't this
judgment depend on how much commitment you ascribe to your
epistemic attitude toward the proposition in the complement?
Second, do such ambiguities (and possible differences in judgments
between native speakers of the same language) show up with other
verbs of the same conceptual domain (epistemic attitude, report on
speech acts, volition, etc.)? Noonan made his remark quoted above
only with respect to "think", "believe" seems to behave
differently. What about other verbs denoting epistemic attitudes
in English?<br>
From this my request arises: Has anybody worked on such
ambiguities and tried to make up a classification of CTP-verbs (of
epistemic attitude, volitional, etc.) within ONE language, and be
it English. That is to say: apart from _cross_linguistic variation
with respect to the liability toward complementation in general
(and the way complementation is marked syntactically or by lexical
means), it would be interesting to understand whether predicates
denoting epistemic attitudes show variation within even one
language, and what are the conditions.<br>
I would be ready to collect such information and make a small
digest out of it, if anybody sends me pertinent references or
reports. Anyway, I'd be grateful to know more about this issue.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
Björn Wiemer.<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
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Dear Typologists,<br>
<br>
Could you tell me if there are languages that you know or know of
that do not permit NEG Raising.<br>
On a NEG Raising reading of (a), it is felt to mean the same thing
as (b):<br>
<br>
a. I don't think John is a werewolf<br>
b. I think that John is not a werewolf<br>
<br>
Also, strict NPIs are licensed:<br>
<br>
c. John won't be here until 6:00<br>
d. I don't think John will be here until 6:00<br>
<br>
In these sentences 6:00 is a strict NPI, and it needs a negation.<br>
(d) contrasts with (f):<br>
<br>
e. I regret that John won't be here until 6:00<br>
f. *I don't regret John will be here until 6:00<br>
<br>
Other NEG Raising predicates include: think, believe, imagine,
intend, want.<br>
<br>
Chris Collins<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Björn Wiemer
Professor für Slavische Sprachwissenschaft
Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität
Institut für Slavistik
Jakob-Welder-Weg 18
D- 55099 Mainz
tel. ++49/ 6131/ 39 -22186
fax ++49/ 6131/ 39 -24709
e-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:wiemerb@uni-mainz.de">wiemerb@uni-mainz.de</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/wiemerb/">http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/wiemerb/</a>
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