ConSOLE 32 2024 • Queen Mary University of London

The case of Rita: incipient expressive negation in Catalan and Spanish proper nouns

Núria Bosch

University of Cambridge

nb611@cam.ac.uk
Expressive NegationCatalanSpanishProper Nouns

Abstract

This paper explores the emergence of a new expressive use of negation in Catalan and Spanish, where negation appears with proper names to express an attitudinal stance (e.g., ‘Not Rita!’). The phenomenon is analyzed as a case of incipient expressive negation, shedding light on the interaction between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics in the early stages of grammaticalization. The study draws on both corpus data and native speaker intuitions to examine the syntactic distribution, semantic contribution, and expressive effects of this negation strategy.

Access & Citation

Citation Formats

APA Style

Núria Bosch (2024). the case of rita: incipient expressive negation in catalan and spanish proper nouns. In Proceedings of ConSOLE 32, edited by Federica Longo, Leonardo Russo Cardona, Tommaso Sgrizzi, Atefeh Shahbazi, Hadis Tamleh, (pp. 16-40).

BibTeX

@inproceedings{bosch-negationcatalanspanish-2024, title={The case of Rita: incipient expressive negation in Catalan and Spanish proper nouns}, author={Núria Bosch}, booktitle={Proceedings of ConSOLE 32}, year={2024}, pages={16-40}, editor={Federica Longo and Leonardo Russo Cardona and Tommaso Sgrizzi and Atefeh Shahbazi and Hadis Tamleh} }

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