@inbook{9d23c3ac4c8f4e4ea27f88dfc767d244,
title = "Double negation in Catalan and Spanish. Interaction between syntax and prosody",
abstract = "This study focuses on the interaction between prosody and syntax in the interpretation of single negation and Double Negation in two Negative Concord languages, namely Catalan and Spanish. By means of two perception experiments, we investigate the role of two major formal conditions in the interpretation of Double Negation in Catalan and Spanish answers to negative wh-questions: (a) their intonation; and (b) their syntactic structure, which contain n-words such as Catalan ning{\'u} {\textquoteleft}nobody{\textquoteright} or Spanish nada {\textquoteleft}nothing{\textquoteright}. The results reveal that (i) syntax and prosody interact: prosodic contours enhance processing of syntactic structures; (ii) isolated and preverbal n-words may convey DN interpretations when associated with a special intonation; and (iii) Catalan and Spanish hearers show form-meaning preferences between syntactic forms and prosodic contours: interestingly, hearers do not reject marked forms that should be discarded by a theory of grammar that only takes into account syntactic constituents and their merging possibilities according to their formal features, but they interpret them in the only way they can be interpreted, as a presupposition denial.",
keywords = "Catalan, Double negation, n-words, Negative concord languages, Prosody, Spanish, Syntax",
author = "Espinal, {M. Teresa} and Susagna Tubau and Joan Borr{\`a}s-Comes and Pilar Prieto",
note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank the students and colleagues at the Universitat Aut?noma de Barcelona and the Universidad Aut?noma de Madrid who participated in the perception experiments as Catalan and Spanish subjects, respectively, and especially V. Castillo, A. Fasanella, E. Gallardo, Y. Guti?rrez and C. Rubio, who participated in the audio recordings. We are also grateful to our colleagues at the Universidad Aut?noma de Madrid, namely L. Eguren, O. Fern?ndez-Soriano, and J. M. Igoa, for helping us in the recruiting of the Spanish subjects. This research has been funded by two research grants awarded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci?n (FFI2011-23356, BFU2012-31995), and by two grants awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya to both the Centre de Ling??stica Te?rica (2014SGR1013) and the Grup d?Estudis de Pros?dia (2014SGR-925). The first author also acknowledges an ICREA Academia award. Funding Information: Acknowledgments We would like to thank the students and colleagues at the Universitat Aut{\`o}noma de Barcelona and the Universidad Aut{\'o}noma de Madrid who participated in the perception experiments as Catalan and Spanish subjects, respectively, and especially V. Castillo, A. Fasanella, E. Gallardo, Y. Guti{\'e}rrez and C. Rubio, who participated in the audio recordings. We are also grateful to our colleagues at the Universidad Aut{\'o}noma de Madrid, namely L. Eguren, O. Fern{\'a}ndez-Soriano, and J. M. Igoa, for helping us in the recruiting of the Spanish subjects. This research has been funded by two research grants awarded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci{\'o}n (FFI2011-23356, BFU2012-31995), and by two grants awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya to both the Centre de Ling{\"u}{\'i}stica Te{\`o}rica (2014SGR-1013) and the Grup d{\textquoteright}Estudis de Pros{\`o}dia (2014SGR-925). The first author also acknowledges an ICREA Academia award. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.",
year = "2016",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-17464-8_7",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-3-319-17463-1",
volume = "1",
series = "Language, Cognition, and Mind",
publisher = "Springer Nature",
pages = "145--176",
editor = "{Larriv{\'e}e, P.} and {Lee, C. (eds.)}",
booktitle = "Negation and polarity: experimental perspectives",
edition = "1",
}