WECATfON, REFERENTLALm ANT) BOUNDEDNESS flV BRETON A CASE STUDY Dl MARKEDNESS ANI) ASYMMETRY Nathalie Simone rMarie Schapansky B.A. (French), %=on Fraser University 1990 M.A. (Linguistics), Simon Fraser university 1992 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIEiEMEN'I'S FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Linguistics @Nathalie Simone Marie Schapansky, 1996 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY November 1996 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. 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Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay Author:- [signature) [date) APPROVAL NAME: N&fiak Shone Marie Schapansky DEGREE: Doctor of Philosophy degree (Linguistics) ?ITLE OF THESIS: Negation, Referentiatity and Boundedness in Breton: A Case Study in Markedness and Asymmetry EXAMINING COMMITTEE: Chair: Dr. 2. McRobbie Assistant Professor Linguistics Dr. N. Hedberg Assistant Professor, Linguistics Senior Supervisor Dr. T. Perry Associate Professor, Linguistics Supervisor Dr. R. Jennings Professor, Philosophy Supervisor Dr.W. Ladusaw Professor, UCSC, Linguistics External Examiner Dr. R. DeArmond Assxiate Professo-., LLir,gt?istics Internal Examiner ABSTRACT Negative sentewes are considered to be marked vis-a-vis their positive counterparts. However, the markedness of sentence negation cannot be solely defined in terms of the presence or the absence of a polarity particle. Breton, a verb-,econd (V2) language, displays both negative and positive sentence particles, The markedness of sentence negation is realized rather by stmctural and semanticlpragmatic asymmetries. Structural asymmetries (chapter two) are associated with Breton V2. They relate to the notion of Predicate Domain, which must be bound. Whereas the negative particle binds the predicate 3 domain, its positive coun~~~do not. Hence preverbal noun phrases (NPs) serve to bind the predicate domain in affmative but not in negative sentences. Two of the three preverbal positions available in affirmative sentences remain accessible in negative sentences. Sernantic/pragmatic asymmetries (chapter three) pertaining to the V2 order relate to referentiality. In Breton, referential NPs can bind the predicate domain and appear preverbally while non-referential NPs marked by the preposition ag 'of' cannot. Potential binders for the predicate domain depend also on auxiliary selection. The auxiliary 'to be' associated with states shows, in the present tense, four forms demanding subject or non- subject binders. They are sensitive to the position and definiteness of their subjects and two of them do not occur in negative sentences. The auxiliary 'to have', associated with events, demands a referential subject and has no preferred binders. However, this auxiliary is used with eventive readings of state predicates obtained only with referential subjects. In negative sentences (chapter four), semantic asymmetries relate to aspect -- event predicates are interpreted as stative--, and to the irrealis modality -- indefinite NPs are interpreted as non-referential under the scope of negation. In Breton, this rule applies to the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading and the existential quantifier with a narrow scope reading, being replaced in negative sentences by negative polarity items. Non-referential Ws marked by ag, which represent undefmed subsets of entities, must occur in postverbal position. Pragmatic asymmetries relate to the distinction presupposition versus assertion, and to mtalinguistic negation, a marked kind of negation, which does not affect the aspect of event predicates nor the referentiality of NPs under its scope. Hence the universal quantifier with a wide scope reading, the existential quantifier with a nanow scope reading, and the eventive reading of state predicates can occur under the scope of metalinguistic negation. This analysis is extended to other languages. DEDICATION to Henry Schapansky ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With the completion of this work, f wish to acknowledge my warmest thanks to my senior supervisor Nancy Hedberg who helped me develop as a linguist. I wish to acknowledge my warm thanks to the other members of my committee for the time they spent reading this work and for their insightful comments. Thanks also to fellow students and faculty members at Simon Fraser University for their support, and to fellow students and faculty members at the Uni-versity of British Columbia for their participation in the Cross-Town Syntax Reading Group. My deep gratitude goes to Jean Yves Urien in Rennes who spent time and energy answering my lengthy questions, not always orthodox, and in a Breton that is not always "ag er gwellzfi". He organized in June of 1995, as head of the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Linguistiques in conjunction with the Centre de Recherches Bretagne et Pays Celtiques, a talk which allowed me to finalize this work. My deep gratitude goes also to the Centre for System Sciences of SFU which awarded me a scholarship for two semesters, and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada which awarded me a doctoral fellowship, with both allowing me to dedicate my full time to research. Life is sharing. My deepest gratitude goes to my husband for his unconditional support, who did not give me one opportunity to be lazy and to whom this work is dedicated. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowfedg -lent Table of Contents List of Tables List of Abbreviations I. nvTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.l .1 Event versus S;~te 1.3 2 Negation, EvettriSfute,und ReferentialiQ 1.2 Markedness 1.2-1. Concept oflWcrrkednw 1.22. The Concept of Markedness and Negation 12 2.. Markedness and Affixes 1.2.2.2. Markedness and Sentence Particles 1 '2.2.3. Afi-xzd versus Sententid Negation 13. Theoretical Choice 1.3.1. Overview 1.32. Croft's Causal Chains (1991) 1.3 -2.1 Theoretical Perpective 1.3.2.2. Causal Chain Structure 1.4. Organization n. NEGATION, VERB-SECOND WORD ORDER AND STRUCTURAL ASYMMETRIES 2.1. Verb-Seccind Word Order 2.1 .1. Preverbal Position and Particle System 2.1.1.1. The Particle System 2.1.1.1.1. Core Grammatical Relations 2.1.1.1 -2. Non-Core Grammatical Relations 2.1 2. Previous Accounts 2.1.2.1. Background 2.1.2.1 .l. Movement Approach toV2 2.1.2.1 -2. Non-Movement Approach to V2 2.1.2.2. Schafer(1995) 2.1.2.3. Schapansky (1992) 23. The Structure of Breton Sentences 2 2 .l. Simple V2 and Sentence Structure 2.2.1.1. Co-occurrence Restrictions 2.2.1 -1.1. hitid Obliques 2.2.1 -1-2. hitid Lefi-DislocatedfTopicopicNPs 221.13 Initial Objects 2.2.1.2. Sentence Structure and the V2 Requirement 2 2 2. Complex Sentences and the V2 Requirement 2.2.2.1. Complex Sentences and the Articulated V2 2.2.2.2. Complex Sentences and the Symmetrical V2 2.2 3. Comeqwnces 2.2.3.1 . The V2 Requirement and Smctural Asymmetry 2-2.3.2. Negation and Markedness 2.2.3.3. Theore ticid Implications 23, Concfusion III. REFEHCNTlA LlTV AND BOUNDEDNESS: THE SYNTAX-SEMANTICS- PRAGMATICS INTERFACE 3.1. Referential ity and Preverbal Positions 3.1.1. Referentiality 3.1.2 Rules Constraining Grmmutical Relations 3.1 -2.1. Subject Precedence versus Topic Precedence 3.1.2.2. The Definiteness Condition versus Focus Precedence 3.1.3. ,';leferentiuli@as Constraining Preverbal NPs 3.1 .3.1. Definiteness 3.1 -3.2, Referential Dependence 3.1.3.3. CognitiveStatus 3.1 .3.4. Topic and Focus 3-1.3.5. GapsintheCorpus 3.1.3.6. ~irkn's:study (1991) 3.2. Referentiality, Baundedness and AG-Noun Phrases 3.2.1. Non-Aspectmi tkscf AG 3.2.1.1. TheOnginofAG 3.2.1.2. AGasPronoun 3-2.1.2.1. AG as Expletive Subject Pronoun 3.2.1 -2.2. AG as Direct Object Pronoun 3.22. Aspectual Uses oi AC 3.2.2.1. Referentiality and AG 3.2.2.2. AG and lncompletive Aspect 3.2.2.3. AG and Necessity 3.3. Referentiality, Boundedness and Auxiliary Selection 3.3.1. Historical Backgrotrd 3.3.1.1.