Assignment 6: Spanish Polarity Ellipsis

I.  Basic clause structure

Spanish has, like English, a sentence negator, which is 'no':

(1)a.	 Juan vio a Maria.
	'John saw Mary.'
   b.	 Juan no vio a Maria.
	'John didn't see Mary.'

Don't pay any attention to the 'a' in these examples.  It is essentially
an accusative case marker that appears when the direct object refers to
a person.

(1)c.	 Juan no ha comido la carne.
	'John hasn't eaten the meat'
   d.	 Juan no esta comiendo la carne.
	'John is not eating the meat.'
   e.	 Juan no ha estado comiendo la carne.
	'John has not been eating the meat.'
   f.	 Juan no puede comer la carne.
	'John can't eat the meat.'
   g.	 Juan no quiere comer la carne.
	'John doesn't want to eat the meat.'

The following orders are impossible:

(2)a.	*Juan vio no a Maria.
   b.	*Juan vio a Maria no.
   c.	*Juan ha no comido la carne.
   d.	*Juan esta no comiendo la carne.
   e.	*Juan ha no estado comiendo la carne.
   f.	*Juan ha estado no comiendo la carne.

The last two are a little bit different:

(3)a.	 Juan puede no comer la carne.
   b.	 Juan quiere no comer la carne.

This should give you enough to postulate a basic analysis of declarative
clause structure, including the most probable location of 'no'.

WH and Yes/No questions are only a little bit different from English:

(4)a.	 Vio Juan a Maria?		Vio a Maria Juan?
   b.	 Quiere Juan comer la carne?	Quiere comer la carne Juan?
   c.	 No ha comido Juan la carne?	No ha comido la carne Juan?
   d.	 Esta comiendo la carne Juan?
   e.	 A quien ha visto Juan?
	'Who has John seen?'
   f.	 Que quiere Juan comer?		Que quiere comer Juan?
	'What does John want to eat?'
   g.	 Que no quiere comer Juan?

Don't try to figure out the position of the subject in questions,
unless you want a really big headache, but do try to understand the
positioning of the verbs and the WH phrases.

The following show you something else interesting about how Spanish works:

(5)a.	 Maria (no) le dio un beso a su madre.
	'Mary gave/didn't give her mother a kiss.'
   b.	 A su madre (no) le dio Maria un beso.
   c.	 Un beso (no) le dio Maria a su madre.
   d.	 Los profesores (no) viajaron a Roca cada fin de semana.
	'The professors (don't) travel to Roca every weekend.'
   e.	 A Roca (no) viajaron los profesores cada fin de semana.

A look at a few embedded clauses might help a little:

(6)a.	 Creo que Juan vio a Maria.
	'I think John saw Mary.'
   b.	 Creo que Juan no vio a Maria.
   c.	 Jose preguntaba si Juan vio a Maria.
	'Joe asked if John saw Mary.'
   d.	 Jose preguntaba si Juan no vio a Maria.
   e.	 Jose preguntaba que quiere comer Juan.
	'Joe asked what John wants to eat.'
   f.	 Jose preguntaba a quien no vio Juan.
	'Joe asked who John didn't see.'

Try to work out an analysis of everything you have seen so far, except
for the position of the subject in questions.  You can speculate if you
want to, but I haven't given you enough information to solve that puzzle.

II.  An Ellipsis Puzzle
[This part based on work by Marcela Depiante]

With that analysis in hand, you might be ready to solve another puzzle,
though.  In addition to the negator 'no', Spanish has a positive polarity
marker 'si' (the same words are used for 'no' and 'yes'):

(7)a.	 Juan si vio a Maria.
	'Juan DID see Maria.'
(8)a.	 Juan si ha comido la carne.
	'John HAS eaten the meat'
   b.	 Juan si esta comiendo la carne.
	'John IS eating the meat.'
   c.	 Juan si ha estado comiendo la carne.
	'John HAS been eating the meat.'
   d.	 Juan si puede comer la carne.
	'John CAN eat the meat.'
   e.	 Juan si quiere comer la carne.
	'John DOES want to eat the meat.'

Examples like the following indicate that there is a possibility of ellipsis
in sentences containing the polarity markers:

(9)a.	 Juan vio a Maria, pero a Susana no.
	'John saw Mary, but not Susan.'
   b.	 Juan no vio a Maria, pero a Susana si.
   c.	 Juan vio a Maria, pero no a Susana.
   d.	 Juan no vio a Maria, pero si a Susana.

(10)a.	 Los profesores leyeron el dictamen, pero los alumnos no.
	'The professors read the report, but the students didn't.'
    b.	 Los profesores no leyeron el dictamen, pero los alumnos si.
	'The professors didn't read the report, but the students did.'
    c.	 Los profesores leyeron el dictamen, pero la resolucion no.
	'The professors read the report, but not the settlement.'
    d.	 Los profesores no leyeron el dictamen, pero la resolucion si.
	'The professors didn't read the report, but they did the settlement.'
    e.	 Los profesores viajaron a Buenos Aires, pero a Roca no.
	'The professors travelled to Buenos Aires, but not to Roca.
    e.	 Los profesores no viajaron a Buenos Aires, pero a Roca si.
	'The professors didn't travel to Buenos Aires, but they did to Roca.'

(11)a.	 Los profesores leyeron el dictamen, pero no los alumnos.
	'The professors read the report, but the students didn't.'
    b.	 Los profesores no leyeron el dictamen, pero si los alumnos.
	'The professors didn't read the report, but the students did.'
    c.	 Los profesores leyeron el dictamen, pero no la resolucion.
	'The professors read the report, but not the settlement.'
    d.	 Los profesores no leyeron el dictamen, pero si la resolucion.
	'The professors didn't read the report, but they did the settlement.'
    e.	 Los profesores viajaron a Buenos Aires, pero no a Roca.
	'The professors travelled to Buenos Aires, but not to Roca.
    e.	 Los profesores no viajaron a Buenos Aires, pero si a Roca.
	'The professors didn't travel to Buenos Aires, but they did to Roca.'

It looks like there is some kind of ellipsis, and then an optional switch
of order between the polarity marker and the remnant.  But of course it can't
be that simple.

(12)a.	 Susana leyo el dictamen pero Maria dijo que Juan no.
	'Susan read the report but Mary said that John didn't.'
    b.	 Carlitos le dio la resolucion a Maria y me parece que a Susana no.
	'Charlie gave the solution to Mary and it seems to me that
	 he didn't give it to Susan.'

(13)a.	*Susana leyo el dictamen pero Maria dijo que no Juan.
    b.	*Carlitos le dio la resolucion a Maria y me parece que no a Susana.

(14)a.	 Susana no leyo el dictamen pero Maria dijo que Juan si.
	'Susan didn't read the report but Mary said that John did.'
    b.	 Carlitos no le dio la resolucion a Maria y me parece que a Susana si.
	'Charlie didn't gave the solution to Mary and it seems to me that
	 he did give it to Susan.'

(15)a.	*Susana no leyo el dictamen pero Maria dijo que si Juan.
    b.	*Carlitos no le dio la resolucion a Maria y me parece que si a Susana.

(16)a.	 Juan juega al tenis todos los fines de semana, y creo que
	 Susana dijo que Pedro piensa que Maria no.
	'John plays tennis every weekend, and I think that Susan said that
	 Pete thinks that Mary doesn't.'
    b.	*Juan juega al tenis todos los fines de semana, y creo que
	 Susana dijo que Pedro piensa que no Maria.

(17)a.	 Maria no sabe ruso, pero es posible que Luis si.
	'Mary doesn't know Russian, but it is possible that Louis does.
    b. *?Maria no sabe ruso, pero es posible que si Luis.

(18)a.	 A ti te admitiran en Harvard, pero es probable que a tu amiga no.
	'They'll let you into Harvard, but it is probable that they won't
	 admit your friend.'
    b. *?A ti te admitiran en Harvard, pero es probable que no a tu amiga.

(19)a.	 Juan no entrego el trabajo a tiempo, pero existe el rumor que Maria si.
	'John didn't turn in the homework on time, but there's a rumor that
	 Mary did.'
    b.  *Juan no entrego el trabajo a tiempo, pero existe el rumor que si Maria.

(20)a.	 Jorge si, pero Maria Laura no tiene una gata.
	'George does, but Mary Laura doesn't have a cat.'
    b.	*Si Jorge, pero Maria Laura no tiene una gata.


There is one respect in which the two cases do not diverge:

(21)a.	 Juan no tiene un auto, pero Pedro si, y esta en muy buenas condiciones.
    b.   Juan no tiene un auto, pero si Pedro, y esta en muy buenas condiciones.
	'Juan doesn't have a car, but Pedro does, and it's in very good
	 condition.'

What does this tell you?

At this point it is time for you to do two things.  First, say what these
facts tell you about the phenomenon before you (let's call it "polarity
ellipsis").  Second, produce an explicit analysis, particularly being
explicit about what you think the structures are before the ellipsis,
and, if you can, make your analysis predict the observed properties, based
on what you know about ellipsis.