Extending the typology: negative concord and connective negation in Persian

Abstract

This paper aims to advance the general understanding of negative concord (as in English We don’t need no education) and connective negation (as in English neither … nor’) through an analysis of Persian. For negative concord with indefinites the analysis highlights differences between human vs. non-human and pronominal vs. nominal negative concord. It also deals with the problem that hič, the word that arguably marks negation in negative indefinites, also has a non-negative emphatic meaning in questions. For the relation between negative concord and connective negation the paper suggests the importance of two new parameters: (i) are the connective negator and the normal clausal negator similar? and (ii) can one of two negatively connected phrases precede the verb and the other follow it?

Keywords

• negative concord
• connective negation
• negative indefiniteness
• negative polarity
• emphasis