Syntax of the Palestinian Arabic negation-associated exclusive construction

Q2 Arts and Humanities

Linguistics in the Netherlands Pub Date : 2020-10-27 DOI:10.1075/avt.00040.kha

Samir Khalaily

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of a Palestinian Arabic negation-associated exclusive construction featuring the contrastive focus marker illa ‘but’, with theoretical implications for the syntax of negation, negative polarity item licensing, and the categorical status of the root in sentential syntax. It analyzes illa-phrases as constituents licensed by a c-commanding sentential negation (Neg), and illa as a grammatical device encoding contrastiveness. A crucial source for the exclusive semantics of the construction comes from a silent bass ‘only’ immediately following illa that constitutes a syntactic ‘shield’ against Neg scope. Rather than taking an in-situ focus-interpretation approach (cf. Rooth 1985, 1992), we argue for two covert movements at the syntax-semantics interface: quantifier raising of illa-phrases to the designated specifier of polarity Phrase followed by Polarity-to-Focus-raising of Neg. This creates the right syntactic configuration for the truth conditional import of both operators and captures the ‘classical’ thought that focus-sensitive exclusive operators like only quantify over propositional alternatives.

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巴勒斯坦阿拉伯语否定相关排他结构的语法

摘要本文分析了巴勒斯坦阿拉伯语中以“但是”为对比焦点标记的否定相关排他结构，对否定句法、否定极性项目许可以及句中词根的范畴地位具有理论意义。它分析了“illa”作为c命令句否定的组成部分，以及“illa”作为编码对比的语法手段。该结构的排他性语义的一个重要来源来自紧接在illa后面的无声低音“only”，它构成了对Neg范围的语法“屏蔽”。与其采用原位焦点解释方法(参见Rooth 1985,1992)，我们主张在语法-语义界面上进行两种隐蔽的运动:将illa短语的量词提升到极性短语的指定说明符，然后将negg的极性提升到焦点。这为两个操作符的真值条件导入创建了正确的语法配置，并捕获了“经典”思想，即焦点敏感的排他性操作符(如仅对命题替代进行量化)。

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来源期刊

Linguistics in the Netherlands Arts and Humanities-Language and Linguistics

CiteScore

0.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Linguistics in the Netherlands is a series of annual publications, sponsored by the Dutch Linguistics Association (Algemene Vereniging voor Taalwetenschap) and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company since Volume 8 in 1991. Each volume contains a careful selection through peer review of papers presented at the annual meeting of the society. The aim of the annual meeting is to provide members with an opportunity to report on their work in progress. Each volume presents an overview of research in different fields of linguistics in the Netherlands containing articles on phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.