The Even Yearbook 12 (2016)

volume: 12 (2016)
pages: 31–45
author: Marcel den Dikken
title: Negation Topicalisation
keywords: negation, topicalisation, contrastive focus, focus particle, extraposition, abstract negation operator
abstract: Particles which indicate the polarity of a proposition have the entire proposition in their scope, yet typically occur clause-medially, not in the left periphery. In Dutch, however, it is possible to place the negation particle niet in sentence-initial position by itself (immediately followed by the finite verb in a Verb Second pattern), provided that (a) the fronted negation is a contrastive topic and (b) the sentence contains a phrasal contrastive focus in an extraposed, clause-final position. This construction type has things in common with both sentential negation and constituent negation, but does not directly reduce to either. This paper presents an analysis of negation topicalisation that treats niet as a focus particle and mobilises an abstract sentential negation operator. The analysis accounts for the difference between Dutch and English regarding the frontability of negation.
PDF:   full text
raw text: 16di-raw
refs: ⟨BibTeX⟩
@article{even16di,
  author  = {Marcel {den Dikken}},
  title   = {Negation {T}opicalisation},
  year    = 2016,
  journal = {The Even Yearbook},
  volume  = 12,
  pages   = {31–45},
  url     = {http://seas.elte.hu/w/!even/16di}
}
⟨RIS⟩
TY  - JOUR
AU  - den Dikken,Marcel
PY  - 2016/​/​/
TI  - Negation Topicalisation
T2  - The Even Yearbook
VL  - 12
SP  - 31
EP  - 45
UR  - http://seas.elte.hu/w/!even/16di
ER  -
⟨txt⟩
den Dikken, Marcel. 2016. Negation Topicalisation. The Even Yearbook 12: 31–45. http://seas.elte.hu/w/!even/16di