Neg-Raising via Proform

Abstract

Whether Neg-raising should be handled in syntax or semantics/pragmatics has been hotly debated in the literature; one crucial difference between the two analyses is the presence/absence of syntactic Neg-extraction out of an embedded clause. This squib tackles the debate, investigating interactions between Neg-raising and clausal so anaphora. Specifically, the data introduced here show that syntactic Neg-extraction does not take place out of an embedded clause; thus, they are only compatible with the semantic/pragmatic analysis of Neg-raising.