Welsh Negation and Grammatical Theory
Author(s) Robert Borsley,Bob Jones
Language: English
Genre(s): Welsh Interest
- July 2005 · 352 pages ·234x156mm
- · Hardback - 9780708318836
This book looks at the ways in which negation works in Welsh. It shows that there are a number of ways of forming a negative sentence, and explains the conventions which native speakers follow when they use negative patterns. It also considers the implications of the Welsh facts for general theories of negation.
'... a highly successful combination of fine-grained empirical research ...this book will have a strong impact on the development of future accounts of negation in natural language, and is likely to encourage more research on the grammar of Welsh.' Journal of Linguistics
1. Preliminaries; 1.1. Introduction; 1.2. Welsh; 1.2.1. Some history; 1.2.2. Some grammatical properties of Welsh; 1.2.3. Varieties of Welsh; 1.3. Negation; 1.4. The nature of the book; 2. Some basic features of Welsh negation; 2.1. Introduction; 2.2. Negation in formal Welsh; 2.3. Negative finite clauses in informal Welsh; 2.4. Negative non-finite clauses and imperatives in informal Welsh; 2.4.1. Negative non-finite clauses; 2.4.2. Negative imperatives; 2.5. Some negative words; 2.6. Tests for negative sentences; 2.7. Summary; 3. Negative verbs; 3.1. Introduction; 3.2. Negative verbs in other languages; 3.3. Weak negative verbs; 3.3.1. The Negative Dependent Constraint; 3.3.2. Distinctive weak negative forms; 3.3.3. Non-distinctive weak negative forms; 3.4. Strong negative verbs; 3.5. Extra strong negative verbs; 3.6. Unambiguously positive verbs; 3.7. Summary; 4. Negative dependents; 4.1. Introduction; 4.2. Negative dependents and n-words; 4.3. The semantic status of n-words; 4.4. The distribution of n-words; 4.5. Some positive uses of n-words; 4.6. Unrhyw and rhyw forms; 4.7. Summary; 5. Negative adverbs and negative quantifiers; 5.1. Introduction; 5.2. Negative adverbs; 5.2.1. Post-subject negative adverbs; 5.2.2. Negative adverbs in other positions; 5.2.3. Further constraints on ddim; 5.2.4. The semantics of negative adverbs; 5.2.5. The modification of negative adverbs; 5.3. Negative quantifiers; 5.3.1. Quantifier dim; 5.3.2. Pseudo-quantifiers; 5.3.3. Yr un; 5.4. Summary; 6. Other forms of negation; 6.1. Introduction; 6.2. Heb; 6.3. Premodifying ddim; 6.4. Argument and sentence-final dim; 6.5. Focus-negating dim; 6.6. How many (d)dims are there?; 6.7. Summary; 7. The big picture; 7.1. Introduction; 7.2. Negative heads; 7.3. N-words; 7.4. Constraints; 8. Formal analyses 1: Basic elements; 8.1. Introduction; 8.2. Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar; 8.3. Negative heads; 8.4. N-words and their licensing; 8.4.1. The basic analysis; 8.4.2. An apparent problem; 8.4.3. Single negation; 8.4.4. N-words and ellipsis; 8.5. Summary; 9. Formal analyses 2: Further matters; 9.1. Introduction; 9.2. Some constraints; 9.2.1. Finite and non-finite verbs; 9.2.2. The Negative Dependent Constraint; 9.2.3. Other constraints; 9.3. Some lexical entries; 9.3.1. Negative pronouns and adverbs; 9.3.2. Quantifiers and pseudo-quantifiers; 9.4. Summary; 10. Principles and Parameters approaches; 10.1. Introduction; 10.2. P&P and negation; 10.2.1. The Neg-criterion; 10.2.2. AGREE and negation; 10.3. P&P and Welsh negative dependencies; 10.4. Other constraints on ddim; 10.5. Summary; 11. Further issues; 11.1. Introduction; 11.2. Further phenomena; 11.2.1. Waeth and Wiw; 11.2.2. Fawr; 11.2.3. Dim ond; 11.2.4. N-words in affirmative contexts; 11.2.5. A few more phenomena; 11.3. Sociolinguistic issues; 11.4. Diachronic issues; 11.5. Concluding remarks