Splitting Germanic negative indefinites

Abstract

Constructions with an intensional verb and the negative indefinite geen in Dutch (as well as kein in German) routinely lead to split scope readings. English no does not systematically give rise to such readings. Observing a number of other differences between geen / kein and no, we claim that there are two kinds of negative indefinites in Germanic: (i) degree quantifiers that consist of a negative and a numeral meaning component and give rise to split scope (Dutch geen, German kein); (ii) non-degree negative indefinites (English no, and its counterparts in e.g. Swedish). We argue that the split scope phenomenon is tied to degree quantifier movement and is essentially a degree phenomenon.