Apparent expletive negation, silent comparatives, and domain widening in Quebec French superlative and universal constructions

Abstract

In Quebec French, embedded clauses introduced by a universal quantifier or by a superlative may contain a negative morpheme pas that has been analyzed as a type of expletive negation, although it does not have the distribution of the known cases of expletive negation. It is argued that, in the constructions containing that apparently expletive negation, pas is not a new type of expletive, but it is a standard negation operating in syntax and negating a silent comparative. The analysis accounts for the domain widening effect of the apparently expletive pas, and it has the welcome advantage of limiting the proliferation of theoretical constructs. In this analysis, an item that gives every sign of being expletive upon a superficial examination turns out to be not expletive at all once silent categories are taken into account.