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Negation in Syntax--On the Nature of Functional Categories and Projections

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Negation in Syntax--On the Nature of Functional Categories and Projections NEGATION IN SYNTAX: ON THE NATURE OF FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES AND PROJECTIONS HIREN ITZIAR LAKA HUGARZA B.A. University of the Basque Country ( 1985) H.A. University of the Basque Country ( 1986) SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS & PHILOSOPHY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREHENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF f HILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS at the HASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY August, 1990 c Hiren Itziar Laka Mugarza The author hereby grants to H.I.T. permission to reproduce and to distribute copies of this thesis document in whole or in part Signature of Author /hr- bkJz artment of ~ingui'6tics& Philosophy Cestif ied by r-- Keneth Hale Thesis Supervi~or \ n PA A Wayne 0 '.Neil O'A~~*~H~~#~ZTCY~,OF TE Departanen .el Committee AUG 3 1IS90 The central concern of this work is the syntactic nature of negation in Universal Grammar, and its relation to other functional elements in the Syntax. The study argues that negation is not a syntactic category on its own; rather, it is one of the values of a more abstract syntactic category, named X, which includes other sentence operators, such as affirmation and emphasis (Chapter 2). It is also argued that the syntactic feature [negation] surfaces in other syntactic categories besides X. In particular, the existence of [Nl (negative) Complementizers is defended; this acounts for a range of phenomena in various lanquages: across-the-clause licensing of Negative Polarity Items in English, the ditribution of the -nik complementizer in Basque, and the nature of Dubitative Subjunctive in Romance (Chapter 3). Chapter 1 argues for the existence of a universal requirement that inflectional heads such as negation (Z) must be c-commanded by the syntactic head Tense at S- structure. Assuming this requirement, a unified account is provided for apparently unrelated phenomena induced by neqation i? English (do-support, sections 1.3 and 1.4) and in Basqu- [,ne.~ement of the inflected auxiliary, sections 1.1. and 1 2). Chapter 2 also presents an account of the phenomenon of 'double negation' in Romance, in terms of the category C and its projection, CP (section 2.6). It is argued that preverbal instances of the elements that induce 'double negation', such as nadie, nada, ninqQn etc., involve movement of the item in question to the specifier of XP, which is headed by a phonolagically non-overt negative element. Also, 'yes' and 'no' answers are discussed in relation to the C Projection; it is argued that such answers make crucial use of this syntactic category, and parametric differences between the three lanquages under study (English, Spanish and Basque) are considered in support of the hypothesis (section 2.7). The structure of Inflection in Spanish is considered in Chapter 3. The nsture of Subjunctive and its relation to Negation and Imperative Mood is discussed. A proposal is made concerning the inflectional structure of Spanish, this proposal is shown to generate exhaustively the entire verbal paradigm of this language, and it predicts a number of language-particular properties of Spanish (section 3.5). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. It is of course impossible to be fair in dissertation acknowledgments. There are too many names to write down, and too many debts to attach to each one. Also, crucial help and inspiration often comes from unknown or even long forgotten sources. So dissertations may have authors who signed them and "own" them, but the fact remains that ideas are never born to a single, lonely thinker; they are the product of a community of minds. This is the nature of the game, no matter how inconvenient for administrative purposes. Hence, I can gladly claim that more people than I can name or even remember contributed to this work. Despite the hopelesneos of the task, I would still like to single out a few people, among the many I am indebted to. Thanks to all the members of the HIT Linguistics & Philosophy department; I consider myself inmensely lucky for the opportunity to participate in such a stimulating and challenging environment during my graduate years. The members of my thesis committee figure prominently in the group of people to whom I am most indebted: Howard Lasnik and David Pesetsky lent their wealth of knowledge of anything ever done in generative syntax, and yet their genuine excitement over any new puzzle; they provided a continuous and plentiful supply of energy and intelligence. Noam Chomsky and Ken Hale have been to main points of reference from the very beggining of my graduate years. They shared with me, always generously, the depth and breadth, the detail and the globality, the coherence and the diversity, the rigor and the fascination that pave their work in linguistics; my debt to them is inmense, and I only regret having been able to absorb but a minimal portion of what I was offered. Thanks to Richard Larson for being always enthusiastic, for arguing and disagreeing, and yet for making me think that what I said made sense, or, often, for having made what I said make sense, by arguing and disagreeing. To Irene Heim, for her intellectual frankness, which made each appointment a pleasure, and for giving me so many crucial comments and suggestions during the last stages of this dissertatioh. To Richard Kayne for his lectures, his suggestions, and for having the gift to teach one how to work. TO Jim Higginbotham for my first evr contact with semantics, and for unraveling in front of me the mysteries hidden inside something as simple as "snow is white". To Wayne O'Neil, for his survey in linguitics, where he let us relax and say what we thought without knocking us down with the flaws in our arguments. To Jim Harris for his input as a member of my generals committee, and for his help throuqh the secret ways of the administration. To Morris Halle and Donca Steriade, for introducing me to phonology and for never avoiding a question, no matter how many there were. Thanks to all the students in the department, to whom I owe many memorable times. To my classmatus Lori Holmes, Michael Hegarty, Kate Kearns, Peter Kipka, Scott Meredith and Duanmu San. To the 'youngsters', for all the fun and the warmth: Mika Hoffman, Peter Ihionu, Utpal Lahiri, Paul Law, Rolf Noyer and Chris Tancredi. To the unique 'fifth year' people, for a1 1 the chit-chat and advise: Vivian Deprez, Betsy Klipple, Harry Leder, Li Yafei, Bao Ziming. Very special thanks to Eulalia Bonet and Sabine Iatridou for being there, ready to talk and laugh about life, and for the long hours in the midst of a snow storm. To Anoop Mahajan for every single thing, and particularly for having stood by me, soothingly, in laughter and sorrow, day after day. To Doug Saddy, for reminding me to enjoy time. And lest, but absolutely not least, to my dearest 24 Magazine St. witches: Lisa Cheng, Hamida Demirdash and Kelly Sloan, for frienship, fun, feelings and fabulous food. TO Esther Torrego, who has been both a demanding professor and a most honest friend; both intellectually and personally, she has given me crucical support: I certainly owe her more than I will evEr have the chance to return. To Juan Uriagereka for his continuous and generous help from the beggining to the end, in work and in life. I would also like to thank Ignacio Bosque, whom I have never met, for his inspiring and austerely elegant work on Spanish syntax. Also, to Elena Benedicto, John Frampton, Jane Grimshaw, Beth Levin, hndrea Moro, Jean-Yves Pollock, Georges Rebuschi, Luiggi Rizzi, and Raffaella Zannuttini for their always insightful comments and suggestions at various stages of my work. The Basque colleagues that invaded the department in the fall of my last year made me feel at home: we all argued with the same passion and loudness over the same topics, at the same late hours of the night, to the amazement of those not in the know. Esker haunitz, Andolin Eguzkitza, Xabier Ormazabal, Jon Ortiz de Urbina, BeRat Oihartzabal and Miriam Uribe-etxebarria. To Jose Ignacio Hualde and Xabier Artiagagoitia for e-mail support and more. To the professors and friends at the University of the Basque Country, Patxi Goenaga, Joseba Lakarra, Lourdes ORederra, Ines Pagola and Pel10 Salaburu. To Ibon Sarasola, for his opening statement in my first undergraduate course: 'do not believe what I say just because I say it'. To Paul Horwich, for an extremely sharp and original prespective. Also, for sharing with me the long hours and the bitter coffee late at night in the office, keeping me sane and happy through dissertation rush. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my school teachers, who run a clandestine school where kids could learn in Basque. I want to thank them for smiling and being cool when the state inspector came and we all had to speak in Spanish. And for the most wonderful History lessons, where two version that never coincided were taught: the one written by the loosers, which we could not repeat outside the walls of the classroom, and the one written by the winners, which we had to repeat, every year, in the state- exam. To all those brave and loving people who made going to school so much fun: AndereXo Maria Antonia, Irene, BegoFia, Belen, Antton, and many others whose names fade in my memory, and to my parents, Ikerne Mugartza and Pablo Laka, who sent me there and always gave it all expecting nothing in return. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER ONE: THE TENSE C-COMMAND CONDITION 1.0. INTRODUCTION 1.1.
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