Conclusions and open questions

Abstract

AbstractThis penultimate chapter presents the final conclusions of this book, showing that the central hypothesis—that, to the extent that they are applicable to negation, all known syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and lexical ways of encoding dependencies should be attestable among the domain of negation and negative dependencies, unless they are ruled out independently—is confirmed. Syntactic negative dependencies, semantic negative dependencies, pragmatic negative dependencies, and lexical negative dependencies have been attested. The approach does account for a whole series of negative dependencies, ranging from NC and split-scope effects to various types of NPIs and PPIs, and constitutes the attested landscape of negative elements and their dependents. This chapter summarizes the most important conclusions of the entire book and addresses a number of questions concerning the domain of negation and negative dependencies.