French polar response particles and neg movement

Jérémy Pasquereau (1, 2, 3)

1 UNIS - University of Surrey
2 Poitiers UFR LL - Université de Poitiers - UFR Lettres et langues
3 FoReLLIS [Poitiers] - Formes et représentations en linguistique, littérature et dans les arts de l’image et de la scène [EA 3816]

Abstract I present new data from European French involving embedded polar response particles (a.k.a. yes/no particles) in response to negative questions and develop a novel proposal which integrates the insights of previous analyses (e.g. Holmberg in Lingua 128:31–50, 2013; Roelofsen and Farkas in Language 91(2):359–414, 2015). The main puzzle has to do with the interpretation of non ‘no’ (bare or followed by a clause), which may assert its antecedent or the negation of its antecedent. It is shown that the meaning of non -responses varies as a function of the scope of negation with respect to various operators in its antecedent. Polar response particles in French are analyzed as the spell-out of a Polarity head which has moved from a lower position. The various interpretations of polar response particles are modelled as being constrained by the interaction between the necessity of the movement of the Polarity head and a constraint on scope preservation. The ramifications of this proposal for related phenomena (e.g. ‘low negation’ in English, N-word responses) are then discussed.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Jérémy Pasquereau. French polar response particles and neg movement. Natural Language Semantics, 2020, 28 (4), pp.255-306. ⟨10.1007/s11050-020-09164-w⟩. ⟨hal-03219124⟩