Re: terminators

[And Rosta <a.rosta@UCLAN.AC.UK>]

Robin Turner:
> Je *ne* le crois *pas*
>
> If "pas" isn't a terminator here, I'd like to know what is!

This is the only putative candidate I've been able to think of
too, but I think it probably doesn't count.

If NE is syntactically subordinated to CROIS, then PAS can't
be a terminator (because you'd then expect "ne pas crois").
If CROIS is subordinate to NE, then you'd expect:

  *Je ne crois l'histoire pas.

rather than

   Je ne crois pas l'histoire.

I suspect that syntactically PAS does not follow CROIS, and
that its apparent position is a phonological illusion. the
actual structure would be

      [ne [pas] [crois l'histoire]]
or
      [[ne [pas]] crois l'histoire]
or
      [[ne] pas [crois l'histoire]]
or
      [[[ne] pas] crois l'histoire]


However, I have (elsewhere) argued for the structure

    [[both [[a man] and [a woman]] [who love each other]] will]

so that leaves scope for a structure where PAS really is
a terminator (or rather, where NE is an initiator):

    [[ne [crois]] pas [l'histoire]]

--I wouldn't have thought my reasoning here is clear for all
to see, so suffice it to say that I think it is at best
controversial to see PAS as a terminator.

--And