N-Words and Negation in German

Negative indefinites in German such as niemand, nichts or kein Hund are generally regarded as negative quantifiers. We will however present data that such an analysis cannot account for. Negative Indefinites embedded under modal or object opaque verbs, in idioms and in constructions involving topic-focus-accent show that negative indefinites cannot uniformly be analysed as negative quantifiers. Instead we propose that negative indefinites in German are special negative polarity items (NPIs) that have to be licensed by an abstract negation. We will state precise licensing conditions for these special NPIs and give a detailed syntax and semantics for the constructions under consideration. Furthermore, the consequences of such a theory for the syntax of negation in German will be explored. We will also address how our analysis of negative indefinites in German relates to other theories of negation, such as the NEG-criterion proposed by Zanuttini and Haegemann.