On the Dual Nature of Sem-Phrases in Hungarian: Negative Quantifiers or Negative Indefinites?
Authors
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55121/le.v3i1.1214Abstract
Sem-phrases in Hungarian are negative indefinites accompanied by the negative emphatic particle sem ‘neither’. Preverbal sem-phrases differ from postverbal ones in that the former behave as negative quantifiers (NQs), while the latter resemble s-words, which are negative concord items (NCIs) like senki ‘nobody’. By adopting Ladusaw’s distinction between syntactic vs. semantic licensing, the paper offers an explanation for this variation in a purely cartographic syntactic framework. Earlier accounts turned around the universal vs. existential interpretations of negative indefinites. The present proposal derives the interpretive differences from their different licensing requirements. It extends the proposed analysis to negative connectives, where nominals precede sem ‘neither’, and negative conjunction constructions, where nominals follow sem ‘neither’. Preverbal nominals show quantificational properties only when they precede sem ‘neither’; postverbally, however, the same nominals are non-quantificational NCIs. Nominals following sem ‘neither’ are invariably NCIs. Therefore, a uniform quantificational analysis for all these items is untenable. Finally, the paper briefly discusses (még) ... sem ‘not ... even’ constructions with nominals modified by numerical quantifiers and classifiers, which mimic the behaviour of sem-phrases and nominals accompanied by sem ‘neither’ in preverbal and postverbal positions. All these differences follow from a special freezing effect called Criterial Freezing, which applies whenever the specifier of the SEMP functional projection is filled.
Keywords
Strict Negative Concord, Negative Licenser, Quantificational Force, Negative Indefinites, Negative Connectives, Negative Conjunction, Not ... EvenReferences
[1] Giannakidou, A., 2000. Negative ... Concord? Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 18, 457–523. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006477315705
[2] Błaszczak, J., 2001. (Negative) polarity items in Polish: Towards a unified account. In: Maienborn, C. (Ed.). (A)Symmetrien – (A)Symmetries: Beiträge zu Ehren von Ewald Lang – Papers in Honor of Ewald Lang. Stauffenburg: Tübingen, Germany. pp. 25–56.
[3] Błaszczak, J., 2003. Explaining the “Bagel Problem”: The case of Polish kolwiek-NPIs. In: Browne, W., Kim, J.-Y., Partee, B.H., et al. (Eds.). Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 11: The Amherst Meeting. Michigan Slavic Publications: Ann Arbor, MI, USA. pp. 121–140.
[4] Puskás, G., 1998. On the Neg-Criterion in Hungarian. Acta Linguistica Hungarica. 45(1–2), 167–213. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009613125594
[5] Déprez, V., 2000. Parallel (A)symmetries and the internal structure of negative expressions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 18(2), 253–342. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006449808181
[6] Déprez, V., 2018. What is negative in Haitian? In: Déprez, V., Henri, F. (Eds.). Negation and Negative Concord: The View from Creoles. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. pp. 33–69.
[7] Penka, D., 2020. Negative indefinites and negative concord. In: Gutzmann, D., Matthewson, E., Meier, C., et al. (Eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Semantics, Vol. 4. Wiley Blackwell: Hoboken, NJ, USA. pp. 2001–2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118788516.sem095
[8] Déprez, V., Espinal, M.T. (Eds.), 2020. The Oxford Handbook of Negation. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198830528.001.0001
[9] Witkoś, J., Dalmi, G., 2024. Slavic and Finno-Ugric in the typology of Negative Concord languages. In: Dalmi, G., Witkoś, J., Cegłowski, P. (Eds.). Strict Negative Concord in Slavic and Finno-Ugric: Licensing, Structure and Interpretation. De Gruyter Mouton: Berlin, Germany; Boston, MA, USA. pp. 1–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110754834-001
[10] Haegeman, L., Zanuttini, R., 1991. Negative heads and the NEG-Criterion. The Linguistic Review. 8(2–4), 233–252. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/tlir.1991.8.2-4.233
[11] Zeijlstra, H., 2004. Sentential negation and negative concord [PhD Thesis]. University of Amsterdam: Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
[12] Giannakidou, A., 2020. Negative concord and the nature of negative concord items. In: Déprez, V., Espinal, T. (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Negation. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. pp. 458–479. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198830528.013.25
[13] Krifka, M., 2001. Quantifying into question acts. Natural Language Semantics. 9, 1–40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017903702063
[14] Ladusaw, W., 1996. Negative concord and mode of judgement. In: Wansing, H. (Ed.). A Notion in Focus. De Gruyter: Berlin, Germany; New York, NY, USA. pp. 127–144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110876802.127
[15] Surányi, B., 2002. Negation and the negativity of n-words in Hungarian. In: Kenesei, I., Siptár, P. (Eds.). Approaches to Hungarian, Volume 8: Papers from the Budapest Conference. Akadémiai Kiadó: Budapest, Hungary. pp. 107–132.
[16] Surányi, B., 2006. Quantification and focus in Negative Concord. Lingua. 116(3), 272–313. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2004.08.007
[17] Szabolcsi, A., 2018. Strict and non-strict negative concord in Hungarian: A unified analysis. In: Bartos, H., den Dikken, M., Bánréti, Z., et al. (Eds.). Boundaries Crossed: At the Interfaces of Morphosyntax, Phonology, Pragmatics and Semantics. Springer: Cham, Switzerland. pp. 227–243. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90710-9_15
[18] Szabolcsi, A., 2018. Two types of quantifier particles: Quantifier phrase-internal vs. heads on the clausal spine. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics. 3(1), 69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.538
[19] van der Auwera, J., Nomachi, M., Krashnoukhova, O., 2021. Connective negation and negative concord in Balto-Slavic. In: Arkadiev, P., Pakerys, J., Šeškauskienė, I., et al. (Eds.). Studies in Baltic and Other Languages: A Festschrift for Axel Holvoet on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Vilnius University Press: Vilnius, Lithuania. pp. 45–66.
[20] Zeijlstra, H., 2013. Negation and negative polarity. In: den Dikken, M. (Ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. pp. 793–826. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511804571.027
[21] Olsvay, C., 2006. Negative universal quantifiers in Hungarian. Lingua. 116(3), 245–271. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2004.08.006
[22] Puskás, G., 2002. On negative licensing contexts and the role of n-words. In: Kenesei, I., Siptár, P. (Eds.). Approaches to Hungarian, Volume 8: Papers from the Budapest Conference. Akadémiai Kiadó: Budapest, Hungary. pp. 81–106.
[23] Rizzi, L., 2014. Some consequences of criterial freezing: Asymmetries, anti-adjacency, and extraction from cleft sentences. In: Svenonius, P. (Ed.). Functional Structure from Top to Toe: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 9. Oxford University Press: New York, NY, USA. pp. 19–54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740390.003.0002
[24] Rizzi, L., 2017. Types of criterial freezing. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa. 39, 1–19.
[25] Giannakidou, A., Zeijlstra, H., 2017. The landscape of negative dependencies: Negative concord and n-words. In: Everaert, M., van Riemsdijk, H. (Eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell: Hoboken, NJ, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118358733.wbsyncom102
[26] de Swart, H., 1998. Licensing of negative polarity items under inverse scope. Lingua. 105(3–4), 175–200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(98)00021-7
[27] Geach, T.P., 1962. Reference and Generality: An Examination of Some Medieval and Modern Theories. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, NY, USA.
[28] Bartos, H., 1997. On subjective and objective agreement in Hungarian. Acta Linguistica Hungarica. 44, 363–384.
[29] Bárány, A., 2015. Differential object marking in Hungarian and the morpho-syntax of case and agreement [PhD Thesis]. University of Cambridge: Cambridge, UK.
[30] Rizzi, L., 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In: Haegeman, L. (Ed.). Elements of Grammar. Springer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands. pp. 281–337. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5420-8_7
[31] Rizzi, L., 2004. On the cartography of syntactic structures. In The Structure of CP and IP: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 2. Oxford University Press: New York, NY, USA. pp. 3–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195159486.003.0001
[32] Bródy, M., 1995. Focus and checking theory. In: Kenesei, I. (Ed.). Approaches to Hungarian, Volume 5: Levels and Structures. József Attila Tudományegyetem: Szeged, Hungary. pp. 31–43.
[33] Dalmi, G., 2024. Licensing negative indefinites in Hungarian: A purely cartographic approach. In: Dalmi, G., Witkoś, J., Cegłowski, P. (Eds.). Strict Negative Concord in Slavic and Finno-Ugric: Licensing, Structure and Interpretation. De Gruyter Mouton: Berlin, Germany; Boston, MA, USA. pp. 215–244. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110754834-007
[34] Jeretič, P., 2022. Exceptionally optional negative concord with Turkish neither...nor. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 41, 1147–1200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-022-09556-z
[35] Collins, C., 2016. Not even. Natural Language Semantics. 24(4), 291–303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-016-9124-5
[36] Tsedryk, E., 2024. Negative Concord in East Slavic: Looking into the Bagel Problem. In: Dalmi, G., Witkoś, J., Cegłowski, P. (Eds.). Strict Negative Concord in Slavic and Finno-Ugric: Licensing, Structure and Interpretation. De Gruyter Mouton: Berlin, Germany; Boston, MA, USA. pp. 21–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110754834-002
[37] Garzonio, J., 2019. Negative concord in Russian: An overview. In: Krapova, I., Nistratova, S., Ruvoletto, L. (Eds.). Slavic Linguistics Studies: New Perspectives and Research Methodologies. Edizioni Ca' Foscari: Venice, Italy. pp. 175–189.
[38] Kagan, O., 2012. Semantics of Genitive Objects in Russian: A Study of Genitive of Negation and Intensional Genitive Case. Springer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5225-2
Downloads
How to Cite
Copyright & License
Copyright (c) 2026 Gréte Dalmi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Submit Manuscript