Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aims at the investigation of negation in IsiXhosa with the main emphasis on negative morphemes and negative constituents. This study exammes negative morphemes that effect negation m verbs such as copulative and non-copulative verbs in all moods and tenses. This investigation will take the Noun Phrase as the centre of focus. NP will be examined with both specified and unspecified noun as head. Chapter one deals with the brief overview of negation in syntax with special emphasis on negation as an inflectional category and on the structure of functional phrases. Chapter two investigate the negative morphemes in the different moods with different tenses. These moods will be considered with regard to copulative and non-copulative verbs. Secondly this chapter explores negative construction involving the copulative verb and its complements which include the NP, adjective, relative, PP with NGA and PP with na. Deficient verbs properties are explored. Chapter three aims at investigating the possibilities of putting different constituents of a sentence in the negative. These possibilities include subject inversion, clefting and etc. Modal structure theory is applied. Chapter four aims at summarizing the findings contained in the previous chapters. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het as doel 'n ondersoek na die negatief in Xhosa, veral die negatiewe morfeme en die negatiewe konstituente. Dit ondersoek negatiewe morfeme wat 'n invloed het op die negatief in werkwoorde soos die kopulatiewe en nie-kopulatiewe werkwoorde in alle modi en tye. Hierdie ondersoek het as fokuspunt die naamwoordgroep. Die naamwoordgroep is ondersoek met 'n gespesifiseerde en niegespesifiseerde naamwoord as kern. Hoofstuk een gee 'n kort oorsig oor die negatief in sintaksis met spesiale nadruk op die negatief as 'n infleksie kategorie en op die struktuur van funksionele frases. Hoofstuk twee ondersoek die negatiewe morfeme in die verskillende modi met verskillende tye. Hierdie modi is ondersoek met verwysing na kopulatiewe en niekopulatiewe werkwoorde. Tweedens, ondersoek hierdie hoofstuk die negatiewe konstruksie met die kopulatiewe werkwoord en sy komplemente wat insluit die naamwoordgroep, adjektief, relatief en preposisionele groepe met nga en na. Die eienskappe van hulpwerkwoorde is ook ondersoek. Hoofstuk drie ondersoek die moontlikhede om verskillende konstituente van 'n sin in die negatiefte plaas. Hierdie moontlikhede sluit in subjeksinversie en split. Hoofstuk vier gee 'n opsomming van die bevindings in die vorige hoofstukke.

In this thesis I discuss the problem of negative polarity items (NPls). NPis are items that have to be licensed by a certain group of expressions. In this group of expressions which can trigger NPIs we find, among other things: negations, adversative expressions, questions and conditionals. I show that there is an important problem for a grammatical approach to negative polarity: the group of expressions which can licence NPls can't be adequately defined in a grammatical way. There is, however, a semantic way of defining the group of expressions that can licence NPIs. In semantics the group is often referred to as the group of "triggers". It can be proven logically that the group of triggers can be divided into four subgroups: a group of downward-entailing expressions, antimultiplicative expressions, anti-additive expressions and antimorphic expressions. By carrying out a corpus study I find evidence for the hypothesis that the way in which NPIs are licenced by the triggers with different logical properties originates from the different grammatical classes of NPIs (negative polarity nouns, negative polarity adjectives and negative polarity verbs). Since there is evidence for this causal relation, I argue that a grammatical approach to NPI-triggering is necessary from a formal point of view. I give a Minimalist account of NPI-triggering. To make the Minimalist Program suitable for NPI-triggering I have to assume, however, that the semantic information about triggers is available in the lexicon of the MP.

No description available.

The logic of natural language negation (e.g. no) is prima facie at odds with an exclusively CLASSICAL LOGIC based on SET THEORY. The negation of classical logic obeys the LAW OF NON-CONTRADICTION (according to which an element cannot be both in and not in a set) and the LAW OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE (according to which an element either is or is not in a set). In contrast, natural language negation tolerates APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS (as in, Do you like your supper?---Yes and no) and UNEXCLUDED MIDDLES (as in, Do you love your supper?--- No; Do you hate your supper?---No). These prima facie non-classical phenomena relate to non-set theoretic INTERPRETIVE STRUCTURES, particularly OBJECT STRUCTURE, i.e. that objects may possess properties in part but not in whole (e.g. one might love one part of a supper but hate another), and PREDICATE DIMENSIONALITY , i.e. that properties may have mid-range values (e.g. one might evaluate the supper as a whole as an average between the two extremes). I describe several experiments exploring adults' and children's grasp of object structure and predicate dimensionality and their relation to natural language negation, using two different reasoning tasks: the ability to resolve apparent contradictions and the ability to draw inferences about unexcluded middles. Results suggest that even the negation of children as young as age three is not exclusively classical and set theoretic, but rather reflects a principled grasp of object structure and predicate dimensionality. I argue that children's grasp of natural language negation is guided by sophisticated LOGICAL RESOURCES that relate to the NATURAL LOGIC of common objects and their properties, particularly object structure and predicate dimensionality.

This thesis undertakes to refine our understanding of the syntactic properties of sentential negation. The proposed analyses operate at the juncture of recent innovations to Case, Agreement, and X-bar theories, within a Government and Binding framework. Case is checked in a Specifier/Head configuration whenever possible, and agreement is analyzed as the reflex of a Case-checking operation at S-structure. The proposal that the inventory of functional categories available in Universal Grammar includes a Negation Phrase (NegP) is adopted as a point of departure. / In the context of this investigation, certain syntactic properties are attributed to the head and specifier of NegP. It is proposed that the specifier of NegP provides an A-position in which NPs may be Case-checked. S-structure Case-checking is reflected in agreement marking on the negative head. Evidence for LF Case-checking in this position is derived from the Case-licensing of direct objects in negated clauses in Colloquial Welsh and Russian. Definiteness effects are analyzed as due to constraints on an additional Case-licensing option required if negation blocks Case assignment under government. Variations in agreement patterns in affirmative and negative relative clauses in Literary and Colloquial Welsh are attributed to the barrier status of the head of NegP.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the investigation of the semantics and syntax of Negative Words (N-words) in negative concord languages, with a focus on Spanish. An in-depth look into the syntactic behavior as well as into the meaning of terms such as nadie 'nobody', nada 'nothing', nunca 'never', etc., will provide some insight into the controversial nature of these words in the Romance languages as well as a better understanding of their peculiar pattern of distribution. On a larger picture, a thorough investigation of the semantics and syntax of these items will, in turn, contribute to a better understanding of the nature of negative polarity items in general. Thus, as I just anticipated, my conclusion is that N-words are in fact equivalent to negative polarity items, and that the phenomenon of negative concord, by which, in some languages, various negative items contribute only one semantic negation to a sentence, is a subcase of the crosslinguistic phenomenon of negative polarity licensing. In this respect, my analysis of N-words builds on the analyses of Bosque (1980) and Laka (1990). I base my conclusion that N-words are negative polarity items upon an extensive survey of comparative data coming from different Romance languages as well as from English, and I bring up new data and arguments supporting my view on the issue. In addition to arguing for the negative polarity nature of N-words, I also explore the extent to which syntactic operations are involved in the licensing of N-words, and I provide evidence showing that N-word licensing does not directly involve syntactic movement (contra most standard assumptions). Finally, in my investigation of the nature of N-words, I go beyond simply identifying them as negative polarity items. Specifically, I look deeply into the logicosemantic contribution of N-words, and I present arguments and data showing that N-words do not have either negative or any other kind of quantificational force. Rather, as I argue, they are better characterized as logicosemantic variables (in the sense of Kamp 1981 and Heim 1982.) In this regard, I depart from Bosque's (1980) and Laka's (1990) characterization of N-words. My view is more radical than theirs in that I do not just claim that N-words do not have inherent negative content, but also that they do not have any quantificational force of their own at all.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / English Abstract: This research project examines the syntax of negative sentence constructions in Sesotho and explores implications of the empirical data on negation within the framework of the Minimalist Program. According to Minimalist Program, language consists of a lexicon and Computational System where the operations Merge and Move generate sets of structural descriptions, it is driven by the principle of economy, which entails that movement should take place only when necessary for the purpose of Case feature checking. It is also concerned with the expansion of syntactic structures in terms of X-bar theoretic properties, where functional category gives full categorical status. This project further considered the morphology of negation in Sesotho where Sesotho data is refined within the Lexeme-morpheme base morphology, where bound grammatical morphemes such as the negative morphemes in Sesotho are defined in terms of morphological spelling operations. Within these two theoretical frameworks, sentence constructions which realize negation by means of negative morphemes over a full range of tense, aspect and mood distinctions were examined, including sentence construction that realize negation in subordinate clauses as well as those that entail issues of topic and focus, and scope of negation. Constituent negation, with constituents such as subjects, objects and adjuncts is also investigated. Various ways of negating constituents in Sesotho were examined: they are cleft sentences, pseudo-cleft sentences, sentence construction with locative AgrS [ ho ] and sentence constructions with subject inversion as well as sentences where constituents are negated within the VP. All these methods were considered with regard to noncopulative and copulative verbs. The issue of focus which entails plain focus, restrictive and contrastive foci, the issue of topic, which entails stage topics, modified topics and multiple topics are investigated and interpreted within the Focus Structure theory, a theory which assigns focus structures to sentences of the language. Negative sentences are assigned two focus structure viz. main focus structure and the subordinate focus structure. Finally, this study also looks into the scope of negation in Sesotho, where negative criterion (Neg-criterion) stipulates various positions of negative morphemes or words which in turn determines the scope of negation. Scope of negation is also examined in terms of focus, with constituents such as NP's, NP Lac's and NP's in subordinate clauses. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie navorsingsprojek ondersoek die sintaksis van konstruksies met negatiewe sinne in Sesotho en gaan die implikasies na van die empiriese data oor ontkenning binne die raamwerk van die Minimalistiese Program. Volgens die Minimalistiese Program, bestaan taal uit In leksikon en In rekenaarsisteem waar die bewerkinge Saamsmelt en Skuif versamelings strukturele beskrywings genereer, dit word aangedryf deur die beginsel van ekonomie wat inhou dat Skuif slegs plaasvind wanneer dit nodig is vir die doel van die nagaan van die Kasus kenmerk: dit het ook te doen met die uitbreiding van sintaktiese strukture in terme van die teoretiese kenmerke van die X-balk, waar die funksionele kategorie volle kategoriale status verkry. Dié projek het ook verder die morfologie van ontkenning in Sesotho oorweeg waar die Sesotho data verfyn is binne die Lekseem-Morfeem Basis Morfologie, waar grammatikale morfeme soos die negatiewe morfeme in Sesotho gedefinieer word in terme van morfologiese spellingsbewerkings. Binne hierdie twee teoretiese raamwerke, is daar ondersoek ingestel na sinskonstruksies wat negatief realiseer deur middel van negatiewe morfeme binne In volledige reeks van onderskeidinge van tyd, aspek en modus, insluitende sinskonstruksies waar die negatief realiseer in die bysin, asook daardie negatiewe wat gaan oor sake soos Topiek en Fokus, en die omvang van ontkenning. Konstituent ontkenning is ondersoek waaronder konstituente soos onderwerpe, voorwerpe en adjunkte. Verskeie wyses om konstituente in Sesotho te ontken is ondersoek, naamlik: klef en pseudo-klef sinne, sinskonstruksie met die lokatiewe kongruensie [ho] en sinskonstruksies met subjeksinversie asook sinne waar konstituente ontken word binne In werkwoordfrase. AI hierdie wyses is nagegaan met nie-kopulatiewe en kopulatiewe werkwoorde. Die probleem van fokus is ondersoek wat insluit eenvoudige fokus, beperkende en kontrastiewe fokus, asook die probleem van topiek wat verskeie soorte topiek insluit. Hierdie ondersoek is gedoen en uiteindelik geïnterpreteer binne die Fokus Sruktuur teorie, In teorie wat fokusstrukture toeken aan sinne van In taal. Negatiewe sinne word twee fokusstrukture toegeken, naamlik: die hoof fokus struktuur en die onderskikkende fokus struktuur. Laastens het die studie ook gekyk na die omvang ('scope') van ontkenning in Sesotho waar die negatiewe kriterium verskeie posisies van negatiewe morfeme of woorde stipuleer wat dan weer die omvang van ontkenning bepaal. Die omvang van ontkenning is ook ondersoek in terme van fokus waar kontrastiewe fokus die uitbreiding van omvang bepaaloor konstituente soos naamwoordfrases, lokatiewe naamwoordfrases en naamwoordfrases in onderskikkende klouse.