Uninterpretable negative features on negative indefinites

Abstract

It was proposed by Ladusaw 1992 and Zeijlstra 2004 that negative indefinites in negative concord languages are semantically non-negative indefinites carrying an uninterpretable negative feature that has to be checked against a semantic negation. This analysis is extended to languages that do not exhibit negative concord. Crucial evidence comes from the fact that negative indefinites give rise to split readings, in which another (modal etc.) operator takes scope in between the negative and the indefinite meaning component. Split readings also provide an argument against im plementing the licensing conditions for negative indefinites in certain ways proposed in the literature, in particular against the NEG-criterion of Haegeman and Zanuttini 1991, but also against the analyses of Ladusaw 1992 and Kratzer 2005.