The syntax of negative polarity items in Central Kurdish

AbstractThis paper investigates the morpho-syntactic properties and structure of hych kasek ‘anyone’ and hych shitek ‘anything’, two negative polarity items (NPIs) in Central Kurdish (CK). The study explores their variants in negative and non-negative contexts and evaluates their alignment with the proposals of Collins and Postal (CP2014). CK data reveal support for the distinction between unary and binary NEG structures, while highlighting variations in the deletion of the NEG element. Hych kasek consistently exhibits variants, while hych shitek demonstrates context-specific patterns. A split-DP structure is proposed, with the determiner splitting into Dneg (lexicalized by hych) and Dsome (lexicalized by -ek). The semantic distinction between unary and binary NEG structures is observed. Additionally, a third pattern of NEG raising is suggested, allowing NEG to raise optionally with or without a resumptive copy. This study enhances our understanding of NPIs in CK, providing insights into their morpho-syntactic structure and their compatibility with the proposals put forth by CP2014.