Polarity items, n-words and minimizers in Catalan and Spanish

Catalan minimizers (expressions denoting some minimal quantity or extent) contain an overt negative marker. When subject to a number of diagnostic tests, their behavior is totally opposite to that of (negative) polarity items. Generally, minimizers behave like n-words, except in nonnegativepolarity-licensing contexts, where n-words behave like polarity items and minimizers do not. This article argues that Catalan minimizers, rather than n-words, instantiate the true behavior of negative-concord terms. Thefact the n-words may appear in nonnegative polar contexts should not be taken äs typical of negative-concord terms but rather äs an exceptional phenomenon. Asfor Spanish, itpossesses two classes of minimizers. One class is identical to the Catalan type. The other displays the behavior oftrue polarity items. The facts argue against identifying negative-concord terms with true polarity items, and, therefore, against subsuming negative concord under polarity licensing. Versions of this material were presented at the 7th Going Romance Symposium in Utrecht in December 1993, the 24th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages in Los Angeles in March 1994, and the PIONIER colloquium on Negation and Polarity in Groningen in June 1994. I am indebted to Ignacio Bosque, Elisabet Engdahl, Jacob Hoeksema, William Ladusaw, Giuseppe Longobardi, Itziar Laka, Josep Quer, Jaume Solä, Lucia Tovena, Ton van der Wouden, Raffaella Zanuttini, Frans Zwarts, and two anonymous Probus reviewers for discussion and comments at different stages of this work. Any errors of fact or analysis are, of course, my own responsibility. I would like to acknowledge the support of the Human Communication Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh and of ESPRiT-funded DYANA-2 (Basic Research Project 6852). Probus 6 (1994), 263 294 0921 4471/94/006 0263