Turkish Negative Polarity Items &
Scope of Negation Revisited
EMRAH GÖRGÜLÜ İSTANBUL SABAHATTİN ZAİM UNIVERSITY
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Objectives
To have another look at some issues concerning certain negative
polarity items (NPIs) in Turkish
To revisit the scope of negation, the interaction between NPIs and
negation, and the so-called intervention effects
To shed some lights on the matters with regard to negative
quantifier-like elements
Overview
1. The negative polarity items: asla, katiyyen, sakın and their
distribution
2. Scope of negation, negative polarity items and intervention
effects
3. The ne… ne… (neither… nor…) construction and negation in
Turkish
4. Conclusion & suggestions for future research
What is an NPI?
Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) are linguistic elements that are
licensed by negation in a sentence.
(1) a. John didn’t kill anyone. b. *John killed anyone.
(2) a. Mary didn’t buy anything. b. *Mary bought anything.
What is an NPI?
Negation can’t be just anywhere in the structure. It must appear
above the NPI:
(3) a. John didn’t kill anyone. b. *Anyone didn’t kill John.
(4) a. Mary didn’t buy anything.
b. *Anything wasn’t bought by Mary.
What is an NPI?
NPIs can also be licensed by interrogatives and conditionals.
(5) a. Did you see anyone? b. *You saw anyone.
(6) a. Do you know anything? b. *You know anything.
(7) a. If you see anyone there…. b. If she brings anything….
1. NPIs in Turkish
Kelepir (2001)
The adverb hiç ‘ever’, ‘at all’
The words that begin with the morpheme hiç
Hiçkimse ‘anybody’ Hiçbirşey ‘anything’ Hiçbir N ‘any N’
The words that do not contain the morpheme hiç
Kimse ‘anybody’ Asla ‘never’
Katiyyen ‘in any way’ Sakın ‘ever’
NPIs in Turkish
(8) a. Ora-ya hiç git-me-di-m.
there-DAT never go-NEG-PAST-1SG ‘I never went there.’
b. Ora-ya hiç git-ti-n mi? there-DAT ever go-PAST-2SG Q
‘Did you ever go there?’
(9) Ahmet hiçkimse-yi gör-me-di. Ahmet anyone-ACC see-NEG-PAST ‘Ahmet didn’t see anybody.’
NPIs in Turkish
Some NPIs asla, sakın and katiyyen are licensed only by negation.
(10) a. O-na asla dokun-ma. it-DAT never touch-NEG 'Don't you ever touch it.‘
b. Katiyyen inan-ma. by any means believe-NEG 'Don't you ever believe (it).'
c. Sakın bir daha bura-ya gel-me. ever one more here-DAT come-NEG ‘Don’t you ever come here again!’
NPIs in Turkish
Kelepir (2000, 2001): The NPI sakın is used only in imperatives.
Is it really the case or do we find sakın in other contexts?
The NPI sakın ‘ever’ is also used in non-imperative constructions!!!
(11) a. Sakın bura-ya gel-miş ol-ma-sın. ever here-DAT come-EVID be-NEG-3SG 'I wish/hope she did not ever come here.'
b. Sakın biz-e yalan söyle-miş ol-ma-sınlar. ever us-DAT lie tell-EVID be-NEG-3PL
‘I wish/hope they did not ever lie to us.’
NPIs in Turkish
In addition to imperative sentences, the NPI sakın appears in optative contexts, indicating a wish or hope.
That’s, its use is not restricted to imperative constructions.
What would be the reason for Kelepir’s claim?
The agreement markers on the verb are the same both in
imperatives and optatives.
Optative Imperative 3SG (y)A (-sIn) -sIn
3PL (y)Alar (-sInlAr) -sInlAr
NPIs in Turkish
Kornfilt (1997): The third person forms of the optative are
obsolete and are usually replaced with the third person forms of the imperative paradigm.
Optative / Imperative 3SG -sIn
3PL -sInlAr
The form is the same in both but the function is different:
optative vs. imperative.
Optative of wish (cupitive)?: this use of the optative is not saying
something about the world, but trying to change the world
NPIs in Turkish
This behavior of sakın is in tandem with other NPIs as they can all
appear in imperative and other contexts.
2. Scope of Negation
Negation can be interpreted at different places in a sentence.
(13) Jack does not drink because he is unhappy.
(i) It’s not because he’s unhappy that Jack drinks (there is some other reason).
(ii) It’s because he is unhappy that Jack does not drink.
The two readings can be understood in terms of the scope of
negation in each sentence.
NEG > BECAUSE BECAUSE > NEG
Scope of negation
Kelepir (2001): an accusative marked object NP can be
interpreted inside or outside sentential negation.
(14) Leyla [NP bir arkadaş-ım-ı] davet et-me-miş.
Leyla one friend-1SG-ACC invite do-NEG-EVID
(i) A friend of mine is such that Leyla didn’t invite her/him. (ii) Leyla didn’t invite (even) one friend of mine.
This gives rise to two different interpretations in the sentence.
∃ > ¬ ¬ > ∃
Scope of negation
Kelepir (2001): If there is an NPI in the subject position, the
accusative marked object is obligatorily interpreted inside negation.
(15) ?Kimse bir arkadaş-ım-ı davet et-me-miş. anybody one friend-1SG-ACC invite do-NEG-EVID
only reading: ‘Nobody invited (even) one friend of mine.’ *‘A friend of mine is such that nobody invited her/him.’
According to Kelepir, the wide scope reading of the object NP
seems to be impossible in (15).
Scope of negation
Immediate scope constraint (Linebarger, 1980)
No scope bearing element can come between negation and an NPI
*NEG …. SBE … NPI
No scope bearing element can come between the existential
quantifier and the variable it binds (Kelepir, 2001)
*∃ f… SBE … f(….)
*¬ (-mA)
∃
FNPI (kimse)
f(bir-arkadaşım-ı)
Scope of negation
It does not appear to be the case!
If there is a pronominal in the subsequent discourse, it may in fact be co-referential with the referent of the accusative-marked NP.
(16) Kimse bir arkadaşi-ım-ı (parti-ye) davet et-me-miş.
anybody one friend-1SG-ACC (party-DAT) invite do-NEG-EVID
Bu yüzden oi gel-e-me-di.
this reason s/he come-ABIL
‘A friend of mine is such that nobody invited her/him (to the party).
That’s why s/he couldn’t come.’
Scope of negation
In fact, the wide scope reading of the NP is the most prominent
one between the two:
(17) Hiçbir öğrenci [NP bir soru-yu] cevapla-ya-ma-mış.
any student one question-ACC answer-ABIL-NEG-EVID (i) There is one question such that no student was able to answer it.
(ii) No student was able to answer any question.
The second reading is possible with a different intonation pattern
on the acc-marked NP (i.e. bir soru-yu).
Scope of negation
No need to posit such a rule as the immediate scope constraint in
Turkish (not at least for the elements in question).
Both interpretations are possible
Prosody seems to handle each reading NPIs are doing fine in these constructions
3. The ne… ne… construction
The only negative phrase in the Turkish language, a construction
that doesn’t need negation (İşsever & Şener 2003; Kelepir 2001).
(18) a. [Ne Ali ne Ayşe] kitap oku-du. Neither Ali nor Ayşe book read-PAST ‘Neither Ali nor Ayşe read a book.’
b. Ahmet [ne şiir ne öykü] yaz-ar. Ahmet neither poems nor stories write-AOR ‘Ahmet writes neither poems nor stories.’
Structurally, the sentence is positive but its meaning is negative.
The ne… ne… construction
The use of ne… ne… along with negation
(19) a. Ne anne-m ne baba-m ev-e gel-di / gel-me-di. neither mother-1SG nor father-1SG home-DAT come-PAST / come-NEG-PAST
'Neither my mother nor my father came home.’
b. Ne yaşlı kadınları ne de Türk işçilerini gör-ür-üm / gör-e-me-m.
N. old women n. also Turk labor. see-ABIL-1S / see-ABIL-NEG-1S ‘I see neither old women nor Turkish laborers.’
Gencan (1979): the former is ‘preferable’ over the latter
Göksel (1987): subject to some syntactic and stylistic restrictions.
The ne… ne… construction
Şener & İşsever (2003): It’s a matter of focus and information
structure: Negation is allowed if focus is NOT on the ne.. ne.. phrase.
(20) a. Ne anne-m ne baba-m ev-e [F GEL-ME-Dİ].
neither mother-1SG nor father-1SG home-DAT come-NEG-PAST ‘Neither my mother nor my father came home.’
b. *[F NE ANNE-M NE BABA-M] ev-e gel-me-di.
neither mother-1SG nor father-1SG home-DAT come-NEG-PAST ‘Neither my mother nor my father came home.’
(21) [F NE… NE...] __ Vaff
The ne… ne… construction
An online study on Twitter:
The ne… ne… construction
An online study on Twitter (cont’d):
40 sentences with the ne… ne… phrase
In 25 sentences ne... ne... connects two sentences and no negation on the verb.
(23) a. [Ne sen ben-i düşün] [ne de ben sen-i unut-a-yım]. neither you I-ACC think nor also I you-ACC forget-IMP-1SG 'Neither you think about me, nor I forget about you.'
b. [Ne yağmur yağ-ıyor] [ne hava soğuk] [ne de üşü-yor-um]. N. rain rain-PROG N. weather cold N. also cold-PROG-1SG 'Neither it is raining, nor it is cold, nor I am cold.'
The ne… ne… construction
Şener & İşsever (2003)’s formula:
(21)’ [F NE… NE...] __ Vaff
Revised formula:
(24) [F NE... (Vaff) NE... (Vaff)] __ Vaff
(25) [Ben ne mükemmel-im] [ne de öyle ol-mak zorunda-yım]
I N perfect-1SG N also like be-INF obliged-1SG ‘I am neither perfect nor do I have to be like that.’
Conclusions & Future Work
NPIs behave in a similar and systematic way in Turkish
NPIs give rise to no intervention effects
The ne… ne… construction allows negation only in structures
smaller than matrix clauses (e.g. NPs, PPs)
Further work on negation, its scope, NPIs and other logical
elements will shed more light on these issues.
References
Kelepir, Meltem. 2001. Topic in Turkish Syntax: Clausal Structure and
Scope. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. MIT.
Kelepir, Meltem. 2000. Scope of negation: evidence from Turkish NPIs
and quantifiers. Proceedings of GLOW Asia II, September 1999 at Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan.
Kornfilt, Jaklin. 1997. Turkish. (Descriptive Grammars), London and
New York: Routledge.
Linebarger, Marcia. 1980. The grammar of negative polarity.
Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. MIT.
References
McKenzie, Andrew. 2006. Fixing the Scope of Negation in Turkish.
Ms. University of Massachusetts.
Şener Serkan and Selçuk İşsever 2003. The interaction of
negation with focus: ne… ne.. Phrases in Turkish. Lingua
113:1089-1117.
