| Popis: |
Squatitives or vulgar minimizers are a subtype of minimizing expressions which may appear with or without overt sentential negation, carrying a meaning equivalent to 'nothing', or functioning as a negative polarity item (NPI) equivalent to 'anything' (1.a and 1b. respectively): (1) a. Danny bought squat. b. Danny didn't buy squat. While some authors imply that examples such as (1.a) involve negation, with 'squat' containing a negative quantifier (cf. van der Wouden 1997, Horn 2001), others claim that this is not the case (cf. Postal 2004). We present these two approaches and their diagnostics and compare it to the situation in Croatian. Lastly, we explore the possibility that squatitives might be involved in the cyclic renewal of negative expressions such as the Jespersen Cycle, following a progression from an etymologically bleached general minimizer to a potential new all-purpose negative adverb, and provide examples of some squatitives in Croatian being used as a marker of sentential negation. |
