Subject: expletive neg0 and opacity effects

dear all , in the absence of n-words , italian marks sentential negation by ` non ' alone . opacity effects are created by ` non ' in the sense that a wh-operator cannot be extracted from a position below neg0 to , say , a higher speccp position . this effect is attributed within relativized minimality to the necessarily co-occuring non-overt operator in specnegp . the operator counts as a closer potential a ' - antecedent and prevents the moves wh-constituent from properly governing its trace . so far , so good . in french , ` ne ' ( = neg0 ) is not usually able to mark sentential negation on its own . in some contexts , however , it can , e . g . , with pseudo-modal verbs such as ` oser ' , ` pouvoir ' . interestingly , in such contexts , the same opacity effects are also produced , suggesting the presence of a non-overt operator in specnegp . so far , still so good . french ` ne ' also has expletive uses . for example , in the complement of adversative predicates and comparatives , ` ne ' can appear in formal styles without reversing polarity . in such contexts , opacity effects are not attested , suggesting that no non-overt operator occupies specnegp . what i 'd like to know is what the situation is in other languages , e . g . , spanish , catalan , and relevant non - romance varieties too . i think i ' m right in saying that , in these varieties in which the neg0 is normally sufficient to mark sentential negation alone , the neg0 morpheme ( e . g . , no ) also has expletive uses . the question is this : does expletive neg0 produce opacity effects in these languages or not ? relevant information about specific languages would be welcome , as would references to discussion in the literature . many thanks . paul dr paul rowlett head of french department of modern languages university of salford salford m5 4wt greater manchester united kingdom
