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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 21, No. 0, pp.1259-1271
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2021
Received 04 Nov 2021 Revised 15 Dec 2021 Accepted 27 Dec 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.21..202112.1259

Conjunction/Disjunction-Negation Scope Interaction under VP Ellipsis/Substitution and Stripping

Myung-Kwan Park ; Wooseung Lee
(1st author) Professor, Department of English Language, Dongguk University parkmk@dgu.edu
(corresponding author) Professor, Department of English Education, Konkuk University wlee6@konkuk.ac.kr


© 2021 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This paper investigates scope interaction between negative elements and syndetic coordination in both anaphoric and non-anaphoric contexts. Specifically, we will go over how negation and coordinated constituents interact and yield relevant interpretation in anaphoric contexts such as VP ellipsis, substitution and Stripping, and non-anaphoric contexts. Based on the readings obtained in a variety of contexts, we reach the following three generalizations. [1] When a coordinated phrase is included in VP ellipsis or substitution, negation in this VP ellipsis/substitution preferentially yields a ‘neither’ reading. [2] Negation in Stripping contexts directly denies the meaning of the coordinators. [3] VPs in negative anaphoric contexts preserve the identical parallel scope when the preceding clausal negation preferentially produces a ‘not both’ reading in combination with conjunction; the preceding and the following negative clauses unmarkedly give rise to a ‘neither’ reading in the presence of disjunction. These generalizations suggest that De Morgan’s laws do not account for natural languages as they do work for propositional logic (cf. Gribanova 2013, Krivochen 2019).

Keywords:

negation, VP ellipsis, substitution, Stripping, conjunction, disjunction, De Morgan’s laws

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Special thanks go to Prof. Yoongoo Philip Jung and Prof. Michael Barrie for their judgment on the data that require a great deal of care and attention. All errors are our responsibility.

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