On the origin of negative concord in Romance languages. The case of Balkan Romania
On the origin of negative concord in Romance languages. The case of Balkan Romania

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the article is to contribute to the explanation of the emergence of negative concord in Romance languages. We discuss the hypothesis of Chiara Gianollo (2018) who shows that the relevant factors are the projection NegP (which emerged in Late Latin) and the new properties (also from Late Latin) of the negative indefinites (i.e. scalarity, emphasis of focus and suspension of the negation force). Gianollo shows that the loss of both focus emphasis and scalarity, coupled with, the grammaticalization of the negative feature of indefinites, produced in the early stages of most Romance languages indefinites that are existentials in the scope of negation. We show that this is just one evolution in the Romance area, because in Balkan Romania, negative indefinites in negative concord are universal quantifiers that outscope negation. This presupposes that negative indefinites in Balkan Romania did not lose scalarity or the focus emphasis. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence of negative concord in Romance are therefore only two: the existence of the NegP projection and (in the case of negative indefinites) the grammaticalization of their negative feature. Scalarity and emphasis of focus, instead, are factors of variation in the realization of negative concord, as they may or may not be preserved by Romance languages.

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