On analysing fragments: the case of No?
This paper addresses the analysis of sentence fragments, specifically the English negative polar response item no. Two main types of synchronic analysis have been proposed for present-day English – one in which yes and no are syntactically inert particles which substitute for a clause, the other in...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2022-0096 |
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| _version_ | 1841536616495054848 |
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| author | Wallage Phillip van der Wurff Wim |
| author_facet | Wallage Phillip van der Wurff Wim |
| author_sort | Wallage Phillip |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper addresses the analysis of sentence fragments, specifically the English negative polar response item no. Two main types of synchronic analysis have been proposed for present-day English – one in which yes and no are syntactically inert particles which substitute for a clause, the other in which they are the initial element of an elided clause. Using diachronic data from 15th- to 17th-century English, we argue that the emergence of a novel other-speaker question pattern involving no demonstrates that speakers of early English analysed interrogative polar no as the initial element of a clause with TP-ellipsis. This novel pattern has received little attention in the literature, yet this grammatical innovation is interesting because its emergence demonstrates how diachronic change can be used as a diagnostic for underlying grammatical structure. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8d40901e5685405fb0d3cf25ed431476 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0024-3949 1613-396X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj-art-8d40901e5685405fb0d3cf25ed4314762025-01-14T13:23:06ZengDe GruyterLinguistics0024-39491613-396X2025-01-016315511310.1515/ling-2022-0096On analysing fragments: the case of No?Wallage Phillip0van der Wurff Wim1Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences, 5995Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, 5994Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKThis paper addresses the analysis of sentence fragments, specifically the English negative polar response item no. Two main types of synchronic analysis have been proposed for present-day English – one in which yes and no are syntactically inert particles which substitute for a clause, the other in which they are the initial element of an elided clause. Using diachronic data from 15th- to 17th-century English, we argue that the emergence of a novel other-speaker question pattern involving no demonstrates that speakers of early English analysed interrogative polar no as the initial element of a clause with TP-ellipsis. This novel pattern has received little attention in the literature, yet this grammatical innovation is interesting because its emergence demonstrates how diachronic change can be used as a diagnostic for underlying grammatical structure.https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2022-0096polar-responsesquestion tagsdiachronic syntaxearly modern english |
| spellingShingle | Wallage Phillip van der Wurff Wim On analysing fragments: the case of No? Linguistics polar-responses question tags diachronic syntax early modern english |
| title | On analysing fragments: the case of No? |
| title_full | On analysing fragments: the case of No? |
| title_fullStr | On analysing fragments: the case of No? |
| title_full_unstemmed | On analysing fragments: the case of No? |
| title_short | On analysing fragments: the case of No? |
| title_sort | on analysing fragments the case of no |
| topic | polar-responses question tags diachronic syntax early modern english |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2022-0096 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wallagephillip onanalysingfragmentsthecaseofno AT vanderwurffwim onanalysingfragmentsthecaseofno |