[Lingtyp] coordination and predicate negation

[Alexander Letuchiy]

Dear Matthew,
Thanks!

Sure, I also consider that the reason for English is the presence of the auxiliary. However, what I want is to try to think of it a bit broader: is it true that an English-like situation is never observed in languages without an auxiliary? If yes, what does it tell us of the negation syntax? If no, what is the difference between Russian and some other languages where negation can be expressed once?
From: m.baerman at surrey.ac.uk
To: alexander_letuchiy at hotmail.com
Subject: FW: [Lingtyp] coordination and predicate negation
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2015 13:18:07 +0000









Hi Sasha
 
I’m no syntactician, so forgive me for stating the obvious, but I would imagine that the explanation for the English state of affairs is the auxiliary, which
 hosts the negation. Since auxiliaries in English can have multiple complements, you can get away with one auxiliary, hence one negation.
 
best
Matthew
 


From: Lingtyp [mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org]
On Behalf Of Alexander Letuchiy

Sent: 06 June 2015 14:47

To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org

Subject: [Lingtyp] coordination and predicate negation


 

Dear colleagues,



Are you aware of any linguistic work on coordination in constructions with predicate negation?


One of the questions which I am interested in is why in some languages (English) the negation can be expressed once (1), while in others (Russian) it must be expressed twice (3), while (2)
 is ungrammatical:


 


English:


(1) He does not read books or watch TV.


 


Russian:


(2) *On  ne    chitaet  knigi      i /        ili smotrit     televizor


        he  NEG  reads     books  and  /  or watches   TV


        Intended: 'He does not read books and / or watch TV'.


 


(3)  On  ne      chitaet   knigi   i        ne      smotrit    televizor


        he  NEG   reads     books and NEG   watches   TV


        'He does not read books and does not watch TV'.


 


Thanks a lot in advance,




Sasha Letuchiy, Moscow


 		 	   		  
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