Vortragende(r) | Maria Onoeva & Mariia Razguliaeva |
Institution(en) | Charles University Prague & HU Berlin |
Datum | 17.01.2025, 14:00 - 15:30 Uhr |
Uhrzeit | 14:00 Uhr |
Ort | ZAS, Pariser Str. 1, 10719 Berlin; Room: Ilse-Zimmermann-Saal (Ground floor) |
Polar questions (PQs) in Russian are formed in two ways: i) by preposing a verb together with li particle (LiPQs); ii) by means of intonation (IntonPQs) with a special L+H* pitch accent, or Q-peak after Esipova (2024). When negated, LiPQs do not allow negative concord items (NCIs) in any context (Brown & Franks 1995, Abels 2005; experimentally confirmed in Onoeva & Šimík 2023). In contrast, IntonPQs with NCIs are felicitous in both negatively biased and neutral contexts, resulting in two negation readings -- inner (propositional, interpreted) and outer (expletive, not interpreted). We claim that these readings have two distinct intonation contours. IntonPQs with one Q-peak at the sentence-final word are used in negatively biased contexts. Since the speaker double-checks salient negative evidence, negation is interpreted, so NCIs can be licensed straightforwardly. IntonPQs with two Q-peaks (on the verb and NCIs) appear in neutral or epistemically biased contexts. Since there is no negative evidence to check, negation must be outer and it is not self-evident how it can license NCIs. Our solution to this puzzle is that in Russian IntonPQs the licensing is conditioned by F-marking the NCI. The F-marked NCI, realized by a pitch accent on the NCI, can enter an Agree relation with the F-marked Pol head, hosting the negated verb. In contrast, nibud’-indefinites have no pitch accent as they are licensed by question force.
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