Difference between revisions of "Negative concord"
Linguipedia (talk | contribs) (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...) |
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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) | ||
Latest revision as of 07:20, 30 August 2007
Negative concord is a widespread term for cases where negative indefinite pronouns 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: nan man nyste nan þing, ‘no man not-knew nothing’; ...and it survives in the vulgar speech of our own days: there was niver nobody else gen (gave) me nothin' (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
- Baker, Carl Leroy. 1970. "Double negatives." Linguistic Inquiry 1:169–186.
- 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.
- Jespersen, Otto. 1922. Language: Its Nature, Development, and Origin. London: Allen & Unwin.
- Labov, William. 1972. Negative attraction and negative concord in English grammar. Language 48:773–818.
