The Cameleontic Nature of French Ni: Negative Coordination in a Negative Concord Language

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to defend the claim that ni, the Frenchcounterpart of neither and nor is always a negative conjunction which takes part in the negative concord system of French. The interpretation one seems to get for this negative concord ni varies depending on the environment where it occurs: depending on its scope position with respect to other negative expressions in the sentence it may alternate with and, or and and not. The paper considers some consequences of this cameleontic behaviour for theories of negative concord.