Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Negative concord in Alemannic

An OT-approach at the syntax-morphology interface

Abstract

The article focuses on variation in negative concord (NC) between and within the grammars of speakers of Alemannic. Based on a broad data set, partial grammars from individuals are extracted, and four different systems are attested: Grammar 1 with obligatory negative spread (N-spread), Grammar 2 with optional negative doubling (N-doubling), Grammar 3 with N-spread and N-doubling, and Grammar 4 without NC. My proposal in the framework of Optimality Theory (OT) is based upon two assumptions: the generation of syntactic structures is unmarked in comparison to the generation of morphological structures (cf. Ackema & Neeleman 2001; Vogel 2006); weak indefinites and negative indefinites (n-indefinites) are not different lexemes, but only allomorphs (cf. Weiß 2002a).

Abstract

The article focuses on variation in negative concord (NC) between and within the grammars of speakers of Alemannic. Based on a broad data set, partial grammars from individuals are extracted, and four different systems are attested: Grammar 1 with obligatory negative spread (N-spread), Grammar 2 with optional negative doubling (N-doubling), Grammar 3 with N-spread and N-doubling, and Grammar 4 without NC. My proposal in the framework of Optimality Theory (OT) is based upon two assumptions: the generation of syntactic structures is unmarked in comparison to the generation of morphological structures (cf. Ackema & Neeleman 2001; Vogel 2006); weak indefinites and negative indefinites (n-indefinites) are not different lexemes, but only allomorphs (cf. Weiß 2002a).

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Possessive -s in German 27
  5. Analyzing language change through a formalist framework 63
  6. Variation and change of plural verbs in Salzburg’s base dialects 95
  7. Content, form and realizations of Upper German case marking 135
  8. Thoughts on morphomes, on a Scandinavian background 159
  9. How to get lost 197
  10. The interaction of phonological and morphological variation in Zurich German 223
  11. Negative concord in Alemannic 243
  12. Variation in non-finiteness and temporality from a canonical perspective 283
  13. Strong or weak? 311
  14. Index 343
Morphological Variation
This chapter is in the book Morphological Variation
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.207.09mos

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Possessive -s in German 27
  5. Analyzing language change through a formalist framework 63
  6. Variation and change of plural verbs in Salzburg’s base dialects 95
  7. Content, form and realizations of Upper German case marking 135
  8. Thoughts on morphomes, on a Scandinavian background 159
  9. How to get lost 197
  10. The interaction of phonological and morphological variation in Zurich German 223
  11. Negative concord in Alemannic 243
  12. Variation in non-finiteness and temporality from a canonical perspective 283
  13. Strong or weak? 311
  14. Index 343
Downloaded on 14.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/slcs.207.09mos/html
Scroll to top button