Pas de Problème: The Distribution and Nature of Double Negation in French and Other Romance Negative Concord Languages

Abstract

Most Romance negative concord (NC) languages in particular configurations give rise to double negation (DN) readings. In this article, I discuss an intricate DN pattern in French. After discussing some previous accounts, I provide an analysis of French pas (and in its slipstream also of the French expletive negative element ne) that takes pas to be a purely semantically but not formally (i.e., syntactically) negative element. I then argue that the reason why French pas is so different from other negative markers lies in its diachrony and show that other attested asymmetries between the formal properties of negative markers and neg-words in Romance must receive a diachronic explanation as well.

Keywords

• negation
• double negation
• negative concord
• French
• Romance
• Jespersen’s Cycle