The stranding of negation markers

Abstract

The inverse scope of the negation marker in a sentence such as All the students have not read the book has frequently been described in the literature, and various explanations have been offered for why the negation marker may (but need not) take scope over the more highly positioned QP. I will argue in this paper that the best explanation for this phenomenon is the Neg Stranding Hypothesis, according to which the subject of the sentence All the students have not read the book with the [ > ] reading is the negated QP not all the students and the negation marker has been stranded by the QP all the students.

Keywords

• constituent negation
• sentential negation
• inverse scope
• universal quantifier
• stranding
• Logical Form
• reconstruction
• partial deletion