Breton Negation and agreement

[Andrew Carnie]

Can anyone answer this query? I've already told the author about Stump's
84 NLLT paper, and Schafer's 95 NLLT paper

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From: cphill at MIT.EDU

Dear Celtling readers,

I have a question about the interaction of negation and extraction which
readers of this list might be able to shed light on.  It concerns the
curious fact that is found in a number of languages, whereby the
presence or absence of negation affects the presence or absence of
agreement in subject extractions.

The effect is that in many languages in which subject extractions do not
display subject-verb agreement, negative subject questions _do_ display
subject-verb agreement.  [A number of cases are surveyed in Ouhalla's
1993 NLLT article.]  My question is quite simple: does negation
interfere with the presence of agreement just when it is a clausemate of
the agreement?  Or can non-local negation have the same effect?  Since
some Celtic languages show the relevant effect, I'm hoping that somebody
will know the answer to this.

The one complication is that there are other factors which might make it
impossible to test this issue, depending on whether there is agreement
in non-local subject extractions.  I've listed some preconditions for
making the test relevant, using translations of examples in Borsley &
Stephens 1989.  For example, I think some dialects of Breton meet all
the preconditions, while others don't.

So, if a language/dialect that you're familiar with shows something like
the patterns in A-D below, what is the status of E?

If there is interest, I will post a summary of the responses to the
list.

Thanks very much!

Colin Phillips

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A. No subject-verb agreement in local subject extractions

*AGR    The boys that read the books
*AGR    Which boys read the books?
*AGR    It is the boys who read the books

B. No subject-verb agreement in subject extractions from an embedded
clause

*AGR    The boys that I think read the books
*AGR    Which boys do you think read the books?
*AGR    It is the boys that I think read the books

C. There IS subject-verb agreement in negated subject extractions

AGR     The children who did not read the books are here
AGR     Which boys did not read the books?
AGR     It is the children who did not read the books

D. There IS subject-verb agreement in subject extractions from negated
embedded clauses

AGR     The boys that I think did not read the books are here
AGR     Which boys do you think did not read the books?
AGR     It is the boys that I think did not read the books

Then...

E. what is the status of subject extractions from an embedded clause
when the *matrix* clause is negated?

??      The boys that I don't think read the books are here
??      Which boys don't you think read the books?
??      It is the boys that I don't think read the books


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