Spanish polarity items

The negative words nadie 'nobody', nada 'nothing', ninguno 'none', nunca and jamás 'never' stand alone before the verb, nadie vino 'no one came', and after it require a negative before it, no vino nadie; only one negative word may precede the verb, never nadie no sabía la verdad, and every later word that can be negated is, nunca hay nada nuevo en ninguna parte 'there's never anything new anywhere'. The same words mean 'anyone', 'anything', 'ever' after a comparative or a superlative, after expressions of doubt, denial, impossibility or too much, in questions expecting the answer 'no', and after antes de, antes que and sin: más que nada 'more than anything', sin nada ni nadie 'without anything or anybody' (Butt and Benjamin §27.4). Jamás is never used after a comparative, ahora más que nunca 'now more than ever' (§27.5.6). The series is Haspelmath's type of negative indefinites that co-occur with verbal negation in some positions and not in others.

Implementation notes

A comparative más que nada has a surface noun phrase after que; the licensing theory lists a surface than NP hosting a polarity item under the clausal comparative, which is the theory's routing and not the grammar's. The theory licenses a weak negative polarity item in every anti-additive context, so it admits jamás after a comparative (clausalComparative_admits_jamás).

References

• [BBMR19]
• [Has97]

def Spanish.PolarityItems.nadie : PolarityItem

nadie 'nobody', 'anybody', as in es dudoso que nadie pueda pasar por nativo 'it's doubtful whether anyone can pass as a native', la mayor tontería que haya dicho nadie 'the most stupid thing anyone has said', él tenía la culpa por llegar antes que nadie 'it was his fault for arriving before anyone else'.

Equations

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def Spanish.PolarityItems.nada : PolarityItem

nada 'nothing', 'anything', as in más que nada, es taimado 'more than anything, he's cunning', pocos libros dirían nada semejante 'few books would say anything similar', he venido sin nada 'I've come without anything'.

Equations

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def Spanish.PolarityItems.ninguno : PolarityItem

ninguno 'none', 'any', as in es más lista que ninguno de los otros 'she's cleverer than any of the others', literary si he sido insincero con ninguno de vosotros 'if I have been insincere with any of you'.

Equations

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def Spanish.PolarityItems.nunca : PolarityItem

nunca 'never', 'ever', as in salió más temprano que nunca 'she went out earlier than ever before', ¿quién hubiera pensado nunca que se casaría con Julia? 'who would ever have thought he'd have married Julia?'.

Equations

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def Spanish.PolarityItems.jamás : PolarityItem

jamás 'never', 'ever' is stronger and less common than nunca, as in el mejor que jamás hubiera 'the best that ever was', and is never used after a comparative.

Equations

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def Spanish.PolarityItems.items : List PolarityItem

The polarity items.

Equations

• Spanish.PolarityItems.items = [Spanish.PolarityItems.nadie, Spanish.PolarityItems.nada, Spanish.PolarityItems.ninguno, Spanish.PolarityItems.nunca, Spanish.PolarityItems.jamás]

theorem Spanish.PolarityItems.spanish_licensing_sound (e : PolarityItem) : e ∈ items → ∀ c ∈ e.licensingContexts, c.licenser.Admits e

Every attested context of every entry licenses it.

theorem Spanish.PolarityItems.clausalComparative_admits_jamás : PolarityItem.LicensingContext.clausalComparative.licenser.Admits jamás

The licensing theory admits jamás after a comparative, where [BBMR19] exclude it, because a weak negative polarity item is licensed by every anti-additive context.