This paper addresses the two interpretations a combination of negative
indefinites can get in concord languages like French, namely a concord reading
which amounts to a single negation, or a double negation reading. We
develop an analysis in a polyadic framework, in which a sequence of negative
indefinites can be interpreted as an iteration of quantifiers or as absorption.
The first option leads to a scopal relation, interpreted as double negation.
The second option leads to the construction of a polyadic negative quantifier,
which corresponds to the concord reading. Given that negation participates
in negative concord, we develop an extension of the polyadic approach which
can deal with non-variable binding operators. The contribution of negation
in a concord context is semantically empty, which is taken to explain the
cross-linguistic variation we find in the participation of negation in negative
concord. The semantic analysis is incorporated into a grammatical analysis
formulated in HPSG, which crucially relies on the assumption that quantifiers
can be combined in more than one way upon retrieval from the quantifier
store
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