The dynamics of change in Dutch enig: from nonveridicality to strong negative polarity

ISSN： 0167-806X

Source： Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Vol.28, Iss.4, 2010-11, pp. : 861-875

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Abstract

In this brief commentary, I consider Hoeksema’s data on enig and suggest that there is actually no shift from non-veridicality to downward entailment, but rather from weak to strong negative polarity. This shift in distribution comes with a change in intonation, observed often with strong NPIs crosslinguistically (Greek, Korean, Japanese). The path of enig to strong NPI-hood can therefore be regarded as grammaticalizing intonational properties as well. In comparing the older versus more modern usages of Dutch enig, I suggest that the two major sources for NPI-hood known from the literature, scalarity and referential deficiency, may correlate with the weak versus strong NPI distinction. Finally, it is suggested that the distributional change comes with a concomitant meaning shift and the emergence of an additional scalar dimension in the Modern Dutch NPI enig (e.g. via an EVEN component).