Authors

Discussion

Slovene features three series of indefinite pronouns exhibiting dependence on negative contexts: ni-pronouns, which are Negative Concord Items (NCIs), and bare and koli-pronouns, which are Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). As a Strict Negative Concord language (see Ilc 2019), Slovene requires that NCIs always occur with the clausemate negator. Conversely, Slovene NPIs are expected to appear in a broader range of Downward Entailing contexts, which also encompass the scope of the clausemate negator (see Ladusaw 1980).

Studies have demonstrated that in Strict Negative Concord languages, NPIs avoid the scope of the clausemate negator; this phenomenon is known as the Bagel Problem (see Pereltsvaig 2006; Błaszczak 2008). However, data from the reference corpus of written Slovene Gigafida 2.0 suggests that even bare and koli-pronouns can be found in negated clauses, casting doubt on whether Slovene exhibits the Bagel Problem.

A careful examination of corpus data confirms the presence of the Bagel Problem in Slovene. Bare and koli-pronouns mostly occur in examples with metalinguistic negation and denial (see Larrivée 2018), where the negator is located in the CP and does not establish a clausemate relationship with the indefinite pronoun. In addition, instances of bare pronouns used alongside the propositional (descriptive) negator, which is situated in the TP, reveal a distinctive pattern. When a bare pronoun is used without any modifiers, it typically outscopes the propositional negator. When modified, it is used in the semantic scope of the negator, with the pragmatic factor of contrastive reading contributing to the interpretation of the pronoun as part of an implied affirmative statement (see de Swart 1998). In contrast, koli-pronouns may be used in the scope of the propositional negator, whether modified or not, but such usage is relatively rare. While some speakers reject it, others find it marked and emphatic. This makes ni-pronouns the most neutral choice in examples featuring the clausemate propositional negator.

References:
Błaszczak, J. 2008. The puzzle of kolwiek-pronouns in Polish. In J. Jayez & L. Tovena, Free Choice: Facts, Models and Problems, 3–12. Hamburg: ESSLLI.
de Swart, H. 1998. Licensing of negative polarity items under inverse scope. Lingua 105(3–4). 175–200.
Ilc, G. 2019. Aspects of Negation in English and Slovenian. Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba FF.
Ladusaw, W. 1980. Polarity Sensitivity as Inherent Scope Relations. New York: Garland.
Larrivée, P. 2018. Metalinguistic negation from an informational perspective. Glossa 3(1/56). 1–22.
Pereltsvaig, A. 2006. Negative Polarity Items in Russian and the Bagel Problem. In A. Przepiorkowski & S. Brown, Negation in Slavic, 153–178. Bloomington: Slavica.