Doble negació dins l'oració simple en català

Abstract

In this piece of research we examine a structure that linguistically encodes a double negation reading in simple sentences in Catalan. This structure contains a sentential negative adverb and an indefinite which is the complement of a preposition that functions as an adjunct. We claim that words like res can behave as free choice items or as n-words because they cause domain expansion, both in broad domains (in a non-negative context) and in minimal domains (in negative contexts). Formally, we argue that these words bear a morphosyntactic feature that has to be checked by an operator endowed with a feature of the same kind. When res is in an adjoined prepositional phrase, the structure favours the checking of this feature in its Specifier: [[ Neg - s ] res[+s]]. If, in addition, there is a second Neg operator in the sentence, double negation necessarily obtains.