EXPLETIVE NEGATION IN ROMANIAN WH AND IF EXCLAMATIVES

Abstract

Expletive negation (hereinafter, also EN) has not been, so far, thoroughly studied in Romanian linguistics – despite the fact that most modern grammars recognize it and (quite) effectively categorize its various contexts of manifestation. Beyond some very well grounded insights regarding the phenomenon, a rigorous interpretation of it, applying the most recent theories available in international literature, is lacking. The purpose of this article is to provide a systematic analysis for Romanian EN occurrences, while also making correlations to other languages. Out of ten specific contexts for expletive negation inventoried by Yoon (2011: 120), only one is put under scrutiny here, namely exclamatives. The focus falls specifically on two types of clauses: Wh exclamatives, which are a widely recognized environment for EN, and clauses introduced by complementizer Expletive negation (hereinafter, also EN) has not been, so far, thoroughly studied in Romanian linguistics – despite the fact that most modern grammars recognize it and (quite) effectively categorize its various contexts of manifestation. Beyond some very well grounded insights regarding the phenomenon, a rigorous interpretation of it, applying the most recent theories available in international literature, is lacking.
The purpose of this article is to provide a systematic analysis for Romanian EN occurrences, while also making correlations to other languages. Out of ten specific contexts for expletive negation inventoried by Yoon (2011: 120), only one is put under scrutiny here,
namely exclamatives. The focus falls specifically on two types of clauses: Wh exclamatives, which are a widely recognized environment for EN, and clauses introduced by complementizer If. The latter is a context not taken into account in cross-linguistic studies, which might even be singular to Romanian. In interpreting various EN occurrences in these two situations, Yoon’s (2011) unified analysis model, based on very extensive research, is applied, while referencing two other interconnected perspectives: that of Portner, Zanuttini (1996, 2000) and that of Delfitto (2020), following Delfitto, Melloni, Vender (2019). Use is also made of valuable considerations included by Giurgea (2015) in a paper on Romanian exclamatives. The common thread of the theories employed in this analysis is that they are all set up in the realm of implicatures, thus using a pragmatic lens in providing a proper interpretation of EN – while of course establishing connections to other language layers (such as syntax and semantics).