Clause-final negative particles in varieties of Swedish. Distribution, grammatical properties, and possible etymologies

• While the Swedish negator inte may be doubled in a final clause-external position, in both standard Swedish and dialects, many dialects also allow a final, clause-internal particle (e, i or ai) in negated clauses. FNPs occur in a coherent area around the Baltic Sea, and in contrast with doubling nega- tion, they are possible both after both inte and aldrig ‘never’. FNPs are also used in questions and exclamations, contexts that disallow doubling nega- tion. These particles may have developed from the former Swedish negator ej or from the common inte. An argument for the former alternative is that other dialectal phenomena that spread from central Sweden during the late Middle Ages have approximately the same geographic distribution. In the final section of the paper, some typological consequences and implications are discussed. Furthermore, it is argued that syntactic studies of non- standard varieties may reveal new insights of typological relevance.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Negation

Swedish

dialect

syntax

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)