Strict and Non-strict Negative Concord in Hungarian: A Unified Analysis

Anna Szabolcsi

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

    Abstract

    Surányi (2006) observed that Hungarian has a hybrid (strict + non-strict) negative concord system. This paper proposes a unified analysis of that system within the general framework of Zeijlstra (2004, 2008) and, especially, Chierchia (2013), with the following new ingredients. Sentential negation nem is the same full negation in the presence of both strict and non-strict concord items. Preverbal senki ‘n-one’ type negative concord items occupy the specifier position of either nem ‘not’ or sem ‘nor’. The latter, sem, spells out is ‘too, even’ in the immediate scope of negation; is/sem are focus-associating heads on the clausal spine. Sem can be seen as an overt counterpart of the phonetically null head that Chierchia dubs NEG; it is capable of invoking an abstract (disembodied) negation at the edge of its projection.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Title of host publicationBoundaries Crossed.
    EditorsH Bartos, M de Dikken, T Varadi
    PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media B.V.
    Pages227-242
    Number of pages16
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2018

    Publication series

    NameStudies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
    Volume94
    ISSN (Print)0924-4670
    ISSN (Electronic)2215-0358

    Keywords

    • Abstract negation
    • Clausal head
    • Focus
    • Negative concord
    • Scope

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Language and Linguistics

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