A note on the complementizer -ela and the long-distance licensing of NPIs in Navarro-Labourdin Basque

Abstract

This article presents ample evidence from written texts that the Basque Navarro-Labourdin dialect, which lacks a contrast between the complementizers -ela and -enik in declarative sentences¸ uses the first one in exactly the same syntactic contexts as -enik is used in Central and Western Basque, that is to say, in the context of matrix questions and negation. Consequently, negative polarity items inside -ela complement clauses can be licensed from the upper clause; the lack of truth-value presupposition attributed to -enik sentences is also manifested with -ela clauses in this dialect.