Abstract
Original language | French |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 279-296 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Journal of French Language Studies |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2005 |
Fingerprint
Bibliographical note
Copyright of Cambridge University PressKeywords
- received wisdom
- negative contexts
- non-specific reading
- negative verb phrase
- polemic contrast
- interpretation
Cite this
}
Quelqu'un n'est pas venu. / Larrivée, Pierre.
In: Journal of French Language Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2005, p. 279-296.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Quelqu'un n'est pas venu
AU - Larrivée, Pierre
N1 - Copyright of Cambridge University Press
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - Received wisdom has it that positive polarity items such as someone are incompatible with negation (?*Someone didn't come). Yet negative contexts are attested with such items not only in their specific indefinite reading (e.g. There's someone who didn't come), but also in their non-specific reading (It isn't the case that someone came). It is the non-specific reading of indefinite quelqu'un as subject of a negative verb phrase which is analysed by the present paper. On the basis of a corpus of attested cases, it demonstrates that polemic contrast is the crucial condition of the considered interpretation. As quelqu'un is included within a presupposed proposition that is rejected as a whole by negation, negative contexts can accommodate an item which does not normally yield the interpretations negation does. Interpretation is thus presented as process of mutual adjustment between contextual readings allowed for by items, readings which can be modalised by discursive values.
AB - Received wisdom has it that positive polarity items such as someone are incompatible with negation (?*Someone didn't come). Yet negative contexts are attested with such items not only in their specific indefinite reading (e.g. There's someone who didn't come), but also in their non-specific reading (It isn't the case that someone came). It is the non-specific reading of indefinite quelqu'un as subject of a negative verb phrase which is analysed by the present paper. On the basis of a corpus of attested cases, it demonstrates that polemic contrast is the crucial condition of the considered interpretation. As quelqu'un is included within a presupposed proposition that is rejected as a whole by negation, negative contexts can accommodate an item which does not normally yield the interpretations negation does. Interpretation is thus presented as process of mutual adjustment between contextual readings allowed for by items, readings which can be modalised by discursive values.
KW - received wisdom
KW - negative contexts
KW - non-specific reading
KW - negative verb phrase
KW - polemic contrast
KW - interpretation
UR - http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JFL
U2 - 10.1017/S0959269505002164
DO - 10.1017/S0959269505002164
M3 - Article
VL - 15
SP - 279
EP - 296
JO - Journal of French Language Studies
JF - Journal of French Language Studies
SN - 0959-2695
IS - 3
ER -