Haspelmath at 07:20, 30 August 2007

2007-08-30T07:20:08Z

Linguipedia: New page: '''Negative concord''' is a widespread term for cases where negative indefinite pronouns cooccur with a separate expression of sentential negation. ::*''"...the ‘concord of nega...

2007-08-29T14:54:11Z

New page: '''Negative concord''' is a widespread term for cases where negative indefinite pronouns cooccur with a separate expression of sentential negation. ::*''"...the ‘concord of nega...

New page

'''Negative concord''' is a widespread term for cases where negative [[indefinite pronoun]]s cooccur with a separate expression of [[sentential negation]].

::*''"...the ‘concord of negatives’, as we might term the emphasizing of the negative idea by seemingly redundant repetitions. In Old English it was the regular idiom to say: ''n''an man ''n''yste ''n''an þing, ‘no man not-knew nothing’; ...and it survives in the vulgar speech of our own days: there was ''n''iver nobody else gen (gave) me ''n''othin' (George Eliot)"'' (Jespersen 1922:352)

===Examples===
Russian ''Nikto ničego ne skazal.'' ‘Nobody said anything’ (lit. ‘Nobody nothing not said’)

===Comments===
The term [[concord]] suggests that such multiple occurrences of negative elements are in some sense related to [[agreement]] phenomena, but the similarity is quite remote. While linguists familiar only with some of major European languages might find negative concord remarkable, it is actually the non-cooccurrence of sentential negation with negative indefinites that is remarkable (Haspelmath 2005).

===Origin===
Probably coined by [[Otto Jespersen]] (cf. Jespersen 1924:352). In the more recent literature, the term was made popular by Baker (1970) and Labov (1972).

===References===
*[[Carl Leroy Baker|Baker, Carl Leroy]]. 1970. "Double negatives." ''Linguistic Inquiry'' 1:169–186.
*[[Martin Haspelmath|Haspelmath, Martin]]. 2005. "Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation." In: Martin Haspelmath & Matthew S. Dryer & David Gil & Bernard Comrie (eds.) ''The World Atlas of Language Structures.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 466-469.
*[[Otto Jespersen|Jespersen, Otto]]. 1922. ''Language: Its Nature, Development, and Origin.'' London: Allen & Unwin.
*[[William Labov|Labov, William]]. 1972. Negative attraction and negative concord in English grammar. ''Language'' 48:773–818.

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[[Category:Syntax]]
[[Category:Morphology]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:20, 30 August 2007
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−	'''Negative concord''' is a widespread term for cases where negative [[indefinite pronoun]]s cooccur with a separate expression of [[sentential negation]].	+	'''Negative concord''' is a widespread term for cases where [[negative]] [[indefinite pronoun]]s cooccur with a separate expression of [[sentential negation]].

	::*''"...the ‘concord of negatives’, as we might term the emphasizing of the negative idea by seemingly redundant repetitions. In Old English it was the regular idiom to say: ''n''an man ''n''yste ''n''an þing, ‘no man not-knew nothing’; ...and it survives in the vulgar speech of our own days: there was ''n''iver nobody else gen (gave) me ''n''othin' (George Eliot)"'' (Jespersen 1922:352)		::*''"...the ‘concord of negatives’, as we might term the emphasizing of the negative idea by seemingly redundant repetitions. In Old English it was the regular idiom to say: ''n''an man ''n''yste ''n''an þing, ‘no man not-knew nothing’; ...and it survives in the vulgar speech of our own days: there was ''n''iver nobody else gen (gave) me ''n''othin' (George Eliot)"'' (Jespersen 1922:352)

Negative concord - Revision history

Haspelmath at 07:20, 30 August 2007

Linguipedia: New page: '''Negative concord''' is a widespread term for cases where negative indefinite pronouns cooccur with a separate expression of sentential negation. ::*''"...the ‘concord of nega...