Nordic Atlas of Language Structures (NALS) Journal, Vol. 1

Copyright © P. Garbacz and C.B. Østbø 2014
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Additive negation

Piotr Garbacz & Christine B. Østbø

University of Oslo & UiT The Arctic University of Norway

1. Introduction

An additive negation (1) is typically used when two or more negative propositions are compared with each other, and it often occurs in clause-initial position. It is one of three functions of clause-initial negation that Lindström (2009:168) identifies. The other two are responsive (2) and interrogative negation (3).

(1)	Inte	ska	du	stå	här	och	skala	potatis!	(Swedish)
	not	shall	you	stand	here	and	peel	potatoes
	‘You shouldn’t be here peeling potatoes!’ (Brandtler & Håkansson 2012: 77)

 

(2)	Inte	har	du	sett	Hedlund	(Swedish)
	not	have	you	seen	Hedlund
	‘You haven’t seen Hedlund by any chance?’ (Brandtler & Håkansson 2012: 77)

 

(3)

Han

har

inga

pengar,

och

inte

har

han

nån

näver

heller.

(Swedish)

he

has

no

money

and

not

has

he

any

birch-bark

either

‘He hasn’t got any money, nor has he any birch-bark.’ (Brandtler & Håkansson 2012: 77)

Additive negation is, according to Lindström (2009:168), more stylistically neutral than the other two, and it is common in both Swedish and Norwegian, but not in Danish (Lindström 2009:165f, quoting Hulthén 1947 and Christensen 2005).

Clause-initial additive negation is according to Teleman et al. (1999:4:175 ff) stressed (unlike e.g. the clause-initial responsive negation). The propositions that are compared can be either explicit, as illustrated in (4), or implicit, as shown in (5).

 

(4)

Inte

har

hon

tvättat

och

inte

har

jag

städat.

(Swedish)

not

has

she

washed

and

not

has

I

cleaned

‘She hasn’t washed, and I haven’t cleaned’ (Teleman et al. 1999:4:175)

(5)

Och

inte

har

jag

hunnit

handla

heller.

(Swedish)

and

not

have

I

reached

shopped

either

‘And I haven’t had time to go shopping either’ (Teleman et al. 1999:175)

2. Results

2.1 Nordic Syntax Database (NSD)

Additive negation has been tested in two sentences in the NSD, for both Swedish and Norwegian. In the first of the sentences, the negation is placed clause-initially in both conjuncts (6); in the second the negation is clause initial only in the second conjunct (7).

(6)

a.

Inte

har

han

tvättat

och

inte

har

han

varit

i

affären.

(#822) (Swedish)

not

has

he

washed

and

not

has

he

been

in

store.def

b.

Ikke

har

han

vaska

og

ikke

har

han

vært

i

butikken.

(#822) (Norwegian)

not

has

he

washed

and

not

has

he

been

in

store.def

‘He hasn’t washed, nor has he been to the store.’

 

(7)

a.

Han

har

inte

tvättat

och

inte

har

han

varit

i

affären.

(#823) (Swedish)

he

has

not

washed

and

not

has

he

been

in

store.def

b.

Han

har

ikke

vaska

og

ikke

har

han

vært

i

butikken.

(#823) (Norwegian)

he

has

not

washed

and

not

has

he

been

in

store.def

‘He hasn’t washed, nor has he been to the store.’

The sentences in (6) are accepted across Norway and Sweden, with the only exception of one location in the eastern Norwegian county of Hedmark (Rena), where (6) is rejected. In addition, (6) is judged as questionable in a small number of locations on the Norwegian west coast (Karmøy, Bergen, and Volda) as well as in two location in Middle Norway (Kvam, Selbu) and one location in the Northern Swedish province of Helsingsland (Delsbo). This is shown in Map 1.

Map 1: Additive negation placed clause-initially in both conjuncts.
(#822: Ikke har han vaska og ikke har han vært i butikken. ‘He hasn’t washed, nor has he been to the store.’)
(White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

The test sentence (7) is also generally accepted in both Sweden in Norway, and only rejected in a few places: in the provinces of Vestfold (Larvik), Vest-Agder (Vennesla), Telemark (Hjartdal), Rogaland (Hjelmeland), Sogn og Fjordane (Stryn) and Hedmark (Alvdal). I addition, (7) is judged as questionable in some locations, mostly in Southwestern Norway and in Northeastern Norway, but also in some Swedish locations. This is shown on Map 2.

Map 2: Additive negation placed clause-initially in the second conjunct (#823: Han har ikke vaska, og ikke har han vært i butikken. ‘He hasn’t washed, nor has he been to the store.’)
 (White = high score, grey = medium score, black = low score).

The results from the NSD show clearly that the additive negation is a widely accepted phenomenon in most of Swedish and Norwegian dialects, being rejected only in a couple of places.

2.2 Nordic Dialect Corpus (NDC)

In the NDC, the both types of the additive negation, cf. (6) and (7), are attested both in Sweden and Norway. In Norway, we found it in a number of locations distributed from the south to the north, in the provinces of Hordaland (Eidfjord), Oppland (Vågå), Møre og Romsdal (Aure), Nordland (Sømna and Andøya), and Troms (Lyngen). In Sweden, the additive negation is found only in the Northern Swedish province of Ångermanland (Anundsjö). This is shown in Map 3 below, and some relevant examples are given in (8)-(10).

Map 3: Additive negation in first or in second conjunct as attested in the NDC.
 (White = places of attestation).

(8)	inte	skulle	man	sätt	värde	på	vad	hon	gjorde,	(Swedish)
	not	should	one	put	worth	on	what	she	did
	inte	skulle	man	sätta	värde	på	det	någonting	inte
	not	should	one	put	worth	on	it	anything	not
	‘One was not supposed to appreciate what she did, nor was one suppose to appreciate it at all.’ (anundsjo_ow3)

 

(9)

ikkje

va

da

fjærnsyn

å

ikkje

va

de

data

(Norwegian)

not

was

it

TV

and

not

were

it

computers

å

ikkje

va

de

mobiltelefon

å

ikkje

va

da

radio

før

and

not

was

it

mobile.phone

and

not

was

it

radio

formerly

‘There was no TV, no computers, no mobile phones, no radio in the past.’ (eidfjord_03gm)

 

(10)

å

vi

vesst

ikke

ka

vi

sku

jør

å

ikke

fækk

vi

nå

fåkLaringa

(Norwegian)

and

we

knew

not

what

we

should

do

and

not

got

we

any

explanation

‘So we didn't know what we were supposed to do, nor did we get any explanation.’ (soemna_02uk)

The spontaneous hits in the corpus confirm the results obtained in the NSD: additive negation is a productive phenomenon in the Swedish and Norwegian dialects. The low number of examples from spontaneous speech is probably an effect of the discourse type used in the conversations that form the corpus.

3. Discussion

3.1. The contrast between bare and complex additive negation

Ekerot (1988:28) states that clause-initial negation cannot be followed by the particle så, whereas the complex phrase inte heller (‘not either’) in clause-initial position can be followed by så (Ekerot 1988:191).

(11)

a.

*Inte

så

kommer

han.

(Swedish)

not

så

comes

he

Intended: ‘He won’t come’ (Ekerot 1988:21)

b.

Inte

heller

så

har

jag

påstått

at

din

son

smygröker.

(Swedish)

not

either

så

have

I

claimed

that

your

son

secret.smokes

‘I have not claimed that your son smokes in secret, either’ (Ekerot 1988:191)

In (11a) the clause-initial negation does not have an additive function, and the particle så cannot intervene between the fronted negation and the finite verb. The presence of the adverb heller ‘either’ in (11b) favors an interpretation of the sentence as a part in an additive sequence, where the first conjunct is implicitly, and not explicitly expressed. It seems therefore that the particle så can appear with additive negation. This hypothesis can however be falsified. First, compare the additive sequences in (12):

(12)	a.	Inte	har	jag	tvättat	och	inte	har	jag	städat.	(Swedish)
		not	have	I	washed	and	not	have	I	cleaned
		‘I haven’t washed and I haven’t cleaned’

 

b.

Inte

har

jag

tvättat

och

inte

heller

har

jag

städat.

(Swedish)

not

have

I

washed

and

not

either

have

I

cleaned

‘I haven’t washed and I haven’t cleaned, either’

 

In (12a) the additive negations appear alone in clause-initial position, whereas in the second conjunct in (12b), the negation is fronted together with the adverb heller ‘either’. The meaning of the two clauses is almost identical, although the fact of not having cleaned is emphasized in (12b). This quite small syntactic difference has interesting syntactic implications.

Some speakers of Swedish and Norwegian can modify (12b), by inserting the particle så between heller ‘either’ and the finite verb har ‘have’ in the second conjunct, the string being grammatical, cf. (13a). The same modification of (12a), i.e. insertion of the particle så in the second conjunt is however impossible, cf. (13b).

(13)

a.

Inte

har

jag

tvättat

och

inte

heller

så

har

jag

städat.

(Swedish)

not

have

I

washed

and

not

either

have

I

cleaned

‘I haven’t washed and I haven’t cleaned, either’

b.

*Inte

har

jag

tvättat

och

inte

så

har

jag

städat.

(Swedish)

not

have

I

washed

and

not

så

have

I

cleaned

Intended: ‘I haven’t washed and I haven’t cleaned, either’

Moreover, even for those speakers that do not accept the structure shown in (11b) above, the contrast between (11b) and (13a) is apparent. Structurally speaking, the contrast between (11b) and (13a) implies that the displacement of the complex phrase inte heller (‘not either’) is of another type than the displacement of the bare additive negation. The bare additive clause-initial negation thus patterns with the non-additive clause-initial negation in this respect. In a cartographic approach, the phrase inte heller (‘not either’) targets a higher position in the tree structure than the bare additive negation (cf. Østbø to appear; Eide 2011; Østbø 2006), such that inte heller can be located higher in the tree than the position for så, and inte is located in a position below så. The displacement of the constituent inte heller thus patterns with displacement of other adverbial constituents that can be followed by så as exemplified in (14).

(14)	Heldigvis	så	kommer	sola	snart	tilbake	(Norwegian)
	fortunately	så	comes	sun.def	soon	back
	‘Fortunately, the sun is coming back soon.’ (Østbø 2006:3)

 

References

Christensen, Ken Ramshøj. 2005. Interfaces. Negation - Syntax - Brain. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Aarhus, Aarhus.

Eide, Kristin Melum. 2011. ‘Norwegian (non-V2) declaratives, resumptive elements, and the Wackernagel position’. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 34.2: 179-213.

Ekerot, Lars-Johan. 1988. Så-konstruktionen i svenskan. Lund: Lund University Press.

Faarlund, Jan Terje, Svein Lie and Kjell Ivar Vannebo. 1997. Norsk referansegrammatikk, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo.  

Hulthén, Lage. 1947. Studier i jämförande nunordisk syntax II, Wettergren & Kebers förlag, Göteborg.

Lindström, Jan. 2009. ‘Negationen inte i satsens spets - Int e du ju rimlit.’ in C. Wide and B. Lyngfeldt (eds), Konstruktioner i finlandssvensk syntax. Skriftspråk, samtal och dialekter, Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Helsingfors.

Teleman, Ulf, Staffan Hellberg, and Erik Andersson. 1999. Svenska akademiens grammatik. 4. Satser och meningar4.Satser och meningar. Svenska Akademien, Stockholm.

Østbø, Christine Bjerkan. 2006. ’The function word så and Norwegian CP-syntax’, paper presented at NORMS workshop on Inversion and Verb Movement, January 30-31, University of Tromsø, Tromsø.

Østbø, Christine Bjerkan. To appear. North Germanic negation. A microcomparative perspective. Doctoral dissertation, University of Tromsø, Tromsø.

 

Web sites:

Nordic Atlas of Language Structures (NALS) Journal: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nals

Nordic Dialect Corpus: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nota/scandiasyn/index.html

Nordic Syntax Database: http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nota/scandiasyn/index.html