[Lingtyp] Expletive NEG and scalar additive 'until' clauses

Bastian Persohn persohn.linguistics at gmail.com
Thu Sep 7 12:20:09 UTC 2023


Hi.

As I mentioned earlier the notion of (un)likelihood in regard to scalar additives has long been debunked (see e.g. Volker’s works).
So I am not sure whether the link you’re drawing there is necessarily tenable, at least not in a simple mapping of unlikelihood->surprise.

The example is very curious, though!

Best,
Bastian

> Am 07.09.2023 um 12:18 schrieb Jesus Francisco Olguin Martinez <olguinmartinez at ucsb.edu>:
> 
> Hi Volker, Pier Marco, Juergen, and Bernhard,
> 
> Many thanks for bringing this to my attention.
> 
> Yes, I think that mirativity is involved here because of the discourse contexts in which these examples are found. I have roughly 42 examples found in different fairy tales. 
> 
> The fact that the asta ‘until’ clause is situated at the most unlikely point along a pragmatic scale of (un)likelihood with respect to contextually relevant alternatives may explain why expletive negation occurs in discourse contexts involving surprise, as in (1). In this example, it is surprising that the rooster ran away from the coyote because he is not afraid of him. The presupposition triggered in (1) is that out of the two animals running away from the coyote (i.e., roadrunner and rooster), the rooster was the least likely to run away. <> 
>  
> Huasteca Nahuatl
> (1)        huankino         peh-ki              hueli    motlaloa <>          ne        pochakua,
>             and.then          start-pfv          big       run                   det      roadrunner
>             ‘And then the roadrunner started running (when he saw the coyote)
>  
>             huan    asta      amo     motlaloa-k       ne        kuapelech.
>             and      until     neg      run-pfv            det      rooster
>             and even the rooster ran away (when he saw the coyote).’
>  
>             achaka             tla-huel                        pensaro-ki
>             nobody            indef.obj-could          think-pfv
>             'Nobody could believe it.’
>            
>             mo-tlan-k-e                 ne        kuapelech        hua      nopa    koyote.
>             rec-fight-pfv-pl         det      rooster             and      det      coyote
>             ‘The rooster and the coyote always fight.’
> 
> This is also attested in other types of 'until' constructions:
> 
> Huasteca Nahuatl
> (2)      mo-chich-k-e.
>             refl-wait-pfv-pl
>             ‘They (the milpa workers) were waiting (for their neighbors).’
>  
>             huankino         ach-ki-onkah               fiesta,
>             and.then          neg-3sg.obj-be           party
>             ‘So, the festival did not start,
>  
>             asta      amo     ki-asi-k-e.
>             until     neg      3sg.obj-arrive-pfv-pl
>             until they (the neighbors) arrived.’
>  
> amo     nelia.                          
> neg      true                  
> ‘No one could believe it.’
> 
> Husteca Nahuatl
> (3)      ki-olini-ki                     nopa    tlaka-tl             pehua-yaya     i-cha               
>             3sg.obj-move-pfv      det      man-abs          start-ipfv         3sg.poss-house
>             ‘The man walked from his house,
>  
>             asta      amo     ki-olini-ki                     pan      el         mar      iteno.
>             until     neg      3sg.obj-move-pfv      in         the       sea       shore
>             to the shore.’
>  
>             pero     pil-huehuen-tsi             pil-huehuen-tsi             pil-huehuen-tsi.
>             but       elder-old-dim              elder-old-dim              elder-old-dim
>             ‘The man is very very old.’
>  
>             huankino         achaka             tla-huel                        pensaro-ki.
>             and.then          nobody            indef.obj-could          think-pfv
>             ‘And nobody could believe it (because his house is far away from the shore).’
> 
> 'Before' is expressed in Nahuatl by means of kemah 'when' and ayokana 'not yet'.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 4:51 AM Volker Gast <volker.gast at uni-jena.de <mailto:volker.gast at uni-jena.de>> wrote:
> Hi Jesús,
> expletive negation in combination with scalar additive operators is not uncommon, but only in downward entailing / non-veridical contexts.
> 
> The following example from Quebec French, quoted from Labelle (2023, ex. [26c]), illustrates expletive negation in a relative clause modifying a superlative NP. 
> 
> 'Sept générations de petits nés dans les pires conditions que tu peux même pas imaginer.'
> 
> 'Seven generations of kids born in the worst conditions that you can(not) even imagine.'
> Expletive negation may certainly generalize from downward entailing to upward entailing contexts, specifically if mirativity or exclamation is involved (see Jürgen's comment).
> 
> I agree with Pier Marco that your example looks strange. Was it taken from a (written) narrative? And do you have similar examples of that type? You'd have to rule out a temporal interpretation, as Pier Marco wrote, and ideally you should have intonational information, to understand any emotive meaning conveyed.
> 
> It would also be good to have more information about the entire polarity system of Huasteca Nahuatl, and the distibution of expletive negation (for a typological approach, see for instance Jin & Koenig 2020).
> 
> In any case, I do not consider it unlikely that expletive negation is found in combination with scalar additive operators in upward entailing contexts; but I would predict that in such cases, it will be found in downward entailing contexts, too.
> 
> Best,
> Volker
> 
> References
> 
> Labelle, M., (2023) “Apparent expletive negation, silent comparatives, and domain widening in Quebec French superlative and universal constructions”, Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 8(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.9549 <https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.9549>.
> 
> Jin, Yanwei and Koenig, Jean-Pierre. "A cross-linguistic study of expletive negation" Linguistic Typology, vol. 25, no. 1, 2020, pp. 39-78. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2020-2053 <https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2020-2053>
> Am 07.09.2023 um 00:00 schrieb Jesus Francisco Olguin Martinez:
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> I was wondering if you know any languages in which expletive negation appears in scalar additive constructions, as in (1).
>> 
>> Huasteca Nahuatl
>> (1)       huankino         hualah-ki                     kuatochi,         
>>             and.then          come-pfv                      bunny
>>             ‘The bunny came to the party,
>>  
>> hua      asta      amo   hualah-ki      koxua-li.
>> and      until     neg      come-pfv       turtle-abs
>>                 and even the turtle.’
>> 
>> The expletive negative marker in (1) seems to have an interesting discourse function in scalar additive 'until' clauses, and it seems that other Mesoamerican languages have developed similar constructions due to language contact. 
>> 
>> The fact that temporal ‘until’ markers may develop into scalar additive operators has not gone unnoticed (König 1991; Jasionytė-Mikučionienė 2019: 293). However, to the best of my knowledge, scalar additive ‘until’ clauses with expletive negation seem to be rare cross-linguistically. 
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> References
>> Jasionytė-Mikučionienė, Erika. 2019. Subordinating conjunctions as discourse markers in Lithuanian. Corpus Pragmatics 3. 285–301
>> König, Ekkehard. 1991. The meaning of focus particles: A comparative perspective. London: Routledge.
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Jesús Olguín Martínez
>> Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Theoretical Linguistics
>> Illinois State University English Department
>> Alexander von Humboldt alumnus
>> Jesús Olguín Martínez | Illinois State University - Academia.edu <https://ilstu.academia.edu/Jes%C3%BAsOlgu%C3%ADnMart%C3%ADnez>
>> 
>> Recent publications:
>> Olguín Martínez, Jesús <>. 2023. Semantically negative clause-linkage: ‘Let alone’ constructions, (expletive) negation, and theoretical implications. Linguistic Typology published online July 2023.
>> Olguín Martínez, Jesús <>. 2023. Areality of clause-linkage: The consecutive construction in Mesoamerican languages. Voprosy Jazykoznanija (‘Topics in the Study of Language’) 3. 122-142.
>> Olguín Martínez, Jesús. 2023. A typological study of tail-head linkage constructions.  In Discourse phenomena in typological perspective,   Alessandra Barotto and Simone Mattiola (eds.), 403-432. John Benjamins: Studies in Language Companian Series.
>> Olguín Martínez, Jesús & Manuel Peregrina Llanes. 2022. ‘Without V-ing’ clauses: Clausal negative concomitance in typological perspective. Folia Linguistica. Acta Societatis Linguisticae Europaeae published online December 2022.
>> Olguín Martínez, Jesús & Alonso Vásquez. 2022. The contribution of Amazonian languages to the typology of purpose clauses. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas 22. 1-21
>> Olguín Martínez, Jesús. 2022. Contact-induced language change: The case of Mixtec adverbial clauses. Journal of Language Contact. Evolution of Languages, Contact and Discourse 15. 1-70.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp <https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp <https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp>
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jesús Olguín Martínez
> Institute of Asian and African Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin
> Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow 
> Home - Jesús Olguín (jesusolguinmartinez.com) <https://www.jesusolguinmartinez.com/?fbclid=IwAR2len8OjCPh6HfiREXrVK56ZMgLrXDUolQdO1G-cG9z2DDl4XM5ZvueVqs>
> 
> Dissertation:
> Olguín Martínez, Jesús. 2022. Temporal adverbial clauses in the languages of the world: Clause-linking strategies. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. 
> 
> Recent publications:
> Olguín Martínez, Jesús. 2023. A typological study of tail-head linkage constructions.  In Discourse phenomena in typological perspective,   Alessandra Barotto and Simone Mattiola (eds.), 403-432. John Benjamins: Studies in Language Companian Series.
> Olguín Martínez, Jesús & Manuel Peregrina Llanes. 2022. ‘Without V-ing’ clauses: Clausal negative concomitance in typological perspective. Folia Linguistica. Acta Societatis Linguisticae Europaeae published online December 2022.
> Olguín Martínez, Jesús & Alonso Vásquez. 2022. The contribution of Amazonian languages to the typology of purpose clauses. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas 22. 1-21
> Olguín Martínez, Jesús. 2022. Contact-induced language change: The case of Mixtec adverbial clauses. Journal of Language Contact. Evolution of Languages, Contact and Discourse 15. 1-70.
> Olguín Martínez, Jesús & Nicholas Lester.  2021. A quantitative analysis of counterfactual conditionals in the world’s languages. Italian Journal of Linguistics 33. 147-182.
> Olguín Martínez, Jesús. 2021.  <>‘As if’ constructions in world-wide perspective. Journal Linguistic typology at the crossroads 1. 2-33.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230907/b0d550bf/attachment.htm>


More information about the Lingtyp mailing list