Aspectual specificity and the scope of negation: Evidence from Slavic

Abstract

This paper examines the interpretation of negated perfective past tense predicates in Slavic, focusing on the contrast between East Slavic and West and Southwest Slavic languages. In East Slavic, negated perfectives systematically give rise to inhibited event readings and the so-called confession effect, whereby speakers are inferred to have been involved in, attempted, or deliberately refrained from realizing the event. We argue that this effect follows from the interaction between aspectual temporal specificity and the scope of negation. In West and Southwest Slavic, where perfective aspect lacks temporal specificity, negation may scope high, yielding simple non-occurrence readings.