Welsh Negation and Grammatical Theory

This book looks at the ways in which negation works in Welsh. It shows that there are a number of ways of forming a negative sentence, and explains the conventions which native speakers follow when they use negative patterns. It also considers the implications of the Welsh facts for general theories of negation.

Table of Contents:
1. Preliminaries; 1.1. Introduction; 1.2. Welsh; 1.2.1. Some history; 1.2.2. Some grammatical properties of Welsh; 1.2.3. Varieties of Welsh; 1.3. Negation; 1.4. The nature of the book; 2. Some basic features of Welsh negation; 2.1. Introduction; 2.2. Negation in formal Welsh; 2.3. Negative finite clauses in informal Welsh; 2.4. Negative non-finite clauses and imperatives in informal Welsh; 2.4.1. Negative non-finite clauses; 2.4.2. Negative imperatives; 2.5. Some negative words; 2.6. Tests for negative sentences; 2.7. Summary; 3. Negative verbs; 3.1. Introduction; 3.2. Negative verbs in other languages; 3.3. Weak negative verbs; 3.3.1. The Negative Dependent Constraint; 3.3.2. Distinctive weak negative forms; 3.3.3. Non-distinctive weak negative forms; 3.4. Strong negative verbs; 3.5. Extra strong negative verbs; 3.6. Unambiguously positive verbs; 3.7. Summary; 4. Negative dependents; 4.1. Introduction; 4.2. Negative dependents and n-words; 4.3. The semantic status of n-words; 4.4. The distribution of n-words; 4.5. Some positive uses of n-words; 4.6. Unrhyw and rhyw forms; 4.7. Summary; 5. Negative adverbs and negative quantifiers; 5.1. Introduction; 5.2. Negative adverbs; 5.2.1. Post-subject negative adverbs; 5.2.2. Negative adverbs in other positions; 5.2.3. Further constraints on ddim; 5.2.4. The semantics of negative adverbs; 5.2.5. The modification of negative adverbs; 5.3. Negative quantifiers; 5.3.1. Quantifier dim; 5.3.2. Pseudo-quantifiers; 5.3.3. Yr un; 5.4. Summary; 6. Other forms of negation; 6.1. Introduction; 6.2. Heb; 6.3. Premodifying ddim; 6.4. Argument and sentence-final dim; 6.5. Focus-negating dim; 6.6. How many (d)dims are there?; 6.7. Summary; 7. The big picture; 7.1. Introduction; 7.2. Negative heads; 7.3. N-words; 7.4. Constraints; 8. Formal analyses 1: Basic elements; 8.1. Introduction; 8.2. Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar; 8.3. Negative heads; 8.4. N-words and their licensing; 8.4.1. The basic analysis; 8.4.2. An apparent problem; 8.4.3. Single negation; 8.4.4. N-words and ellipsis; 8.5. Summary; 9. Formal analyses 2: Further matters; 9.1. Introduction; 9.2. Some constraints; 9.2.1. Finite and non-finite verbs; 9.2.2. The Negative Dependent Constraint; 9.2.3. Other constraints; 9.3. Some lexical entries; 9.3.1. Negative pronouns and adverbs; 9.3.2. Quantifiers and pseudo-quantifiers; 9.4. Summary; 10. Principles and Parameters approaches; 10.1. Introduction; 10.2. P&P and negation; 10.2.1. The Neg-criterion; 10.2.2. AGREE and negation; 10.3. P&P and Welsh negative dependencies; 10.4. Other constraints on ddim; 10.5. Summary; 11. Further issues; 11.1. Introduction; 11.2. Further phenomena; 11.2.1. Waeth and Wiw; 11.2.2. Fawr; 11.2.3. Dim ond; 11.2.4. N-words in affirmative contexts; 11.2.5. A few more phenomena; 11.3. Sociolinguistic issues; 11.4. Diachronic issues; 11.5. Concluding remarks

About the Author :
Bob Morris Jones is a Reader at the Department of Education, University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Robert D. Borsley is Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex.

Review :
'... a highly successful combination of fine-grained empirical research ...this book will have a strong impact on the development of future accounts of negation in natural language, and is likely to encourage more research on the grammar of Welsh.' Journal of Linguistics