Chris Collins and Paul M. Postal
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262027311
- eISBN:
- 9780262323840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027311.003.0014
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter examines Horn clauses in relation to Negative Inversion. It first considers the properties of the Negative Inversion focus and the Negative Inversion Condition (first and second ...
More
This chapter examines Horn clauses in relation to Negative Inversion. It first considers the properties of the Negative Inversion focus and the Negative Inversion Condition (first and second versions), along with various difficulties for the latter condition. In the sentences A human can know a finite number of primes and A finite number of primes can a human know, a finite number is decreasing in the first case, but the second is still ungrammatical. The chapter also considers a range of expressions with decreasing semantic values for which speakers differ with respect to whether Negative Inversion can be triggered, including cases of decreasing expressions that do not systematically form legitimate Negative Inversion foci but involve the numeral zero, which forms decreasing (in fact, antiadditive) determiner phrases. Finally, it discusses the Negative Inversion Condition (third and fourth versions), the relevance of scope to Negative Inversion, and the implications of quasi-Horn clauses for the Horn clause argument concerning the syntactic nature of Classical NEG Raising (NR).Less
This chapter examines Horn clauses in relation to Negative Inversion. It first considers the properties of the Negative Inversion focus and the Negative Inversion Condition (first and second versions), along with various difficulties for the latter condition. In the sentences A human can know a finite number of primes and A finite number of primes can a human know, a finite number is decreasing in the first case, but the second is still ungrammatical. The chapter also considers a range of expressions with decreasing semantic values for which speakers differ with respect to whether Negative Inversion can be triggered, including cases of decreasing expressions that do not systematically form legitimate Negative Inversion foci but involve the numeral zero, which forms decreasing (in fact, antiadditive) determiner phrases. Finally, it discusses the Negative Inversion Condition (third and fourth versions), the relevance of scope to Negative Inversion, and the implications of quasi-Horn clauses for the Horn clause argument concerning the syntactic nature of Classical NEG Raising (NR).
Chris Collins and Paul M. Postal
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262027311
- eISBN:
- 9780262323840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027311.003.0015
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter examines conditions on topicalization and the way topicalization structures interact with Classical NEG Raising (NR). In the majority of cases, when Negative Inversion is possible for a ...
More
This chapter examines conditions on topicalization and the way topicalization structures interact with Classical NEG Raising (NR). In the majority of cases, when Negative Inversion is possible for a particular phrase type, topicalization is impossible. However, in cases such as Under no circumstances would I agree to such a plan, Under no circumstances, I would agree to such a plan, Under those circumstances, I would agree to such a plan, and Under those circumstances would I agree to such a plan, the condition on the fronted phrase for topicalization appears to be essentially the negation of the condition on the fronted phrase for Negative Inversion. The chapter considers the Negative Inversion Condition, the Topicalization Condition, Seuren's Highest-Operator Constraint, and sensitivity of the NEG Raising Condition to syntactic islands.Less
This chapter examines conditions on topicalization and the way topicalization structures interact with Classical NEG Raising (NR). In the majority of cases, when Negative Inversion is possible for a particular phrase type, topicalization is impossible. However, in cases such as Under no circumstances would I agree to such a plan, Under no circumstances, I would agree to such a plan, Under those circumstances, I would agree to such a plan, and Under those circumstances would I agree to such a plan, the condition on the fronted phrase for topicalization appears to be essentially the negation of the condition on the fronted phrase for Negative Inversion. The chapter considers the Negative Inversion Condition, the Topicalization Condition, Seuren's Highest-Operator Constraint, and sensitivity of the NEG Raising Condition to syntactic islands.
