Vulgar Minimisers in English and Spanish
Jiménez-Fernández, Ángel L. (Universidad de Sevilla)
Tubau Muntaña, Susagna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Anglesa i de Germanística)

Imprint:	Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2025
Description:	23 pàg.
Abstract:	In this paper, we investigated whether vulgar minimisers form a natural class in English and Spanish by evaluating (i) their similarities and differences with respect to non-vulgar minimisers and (ii) whether vulgar minimisers are inherently negative in these languages. We proposed that vulgar minimisers in the two languages are lexically ambiguous between polarity-sensitive items and quasi-negative expressions containing a local negation as part of their structure. As polarity-sensitive items, vulgar minimisers show similarities with non-vulgar minimisers when it comes to compulsory co-occurrence with the sentential negative marker, compulsory co-occurrence with not/ni 'not even' in fragment answers and when preposed, and triggering of subject-auxiliary inversion when preposed. By contrast, as quasi-negative expressions containing a local negation as part of their structure vulgar minimisers are allowed to optionally co-occur with the sentential negative marker and not be preceded by not/ni 'not even' when occurring as fragment answers or when preposed. We also argued that the internal negation in (quasi-)negative vulgar minimisers can only take narrow scope, thus resulting in sentences with vulgar minimisers being diagnosed as non-negative by sentential negation tests.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-00787 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2022-137233NB-I00 Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PID2023-150347NB-I
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Transactions of the Philological Society, First published: 05 November 2025, ISSN 1467-968X

DOI: 10.1111/1467-968x.70005

23 p, 292.3 KB

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