Catalan
Page 58
Poc
Poc ‘little’ forms an informal negative, used alone in initial position:
Poc es pensava que … Little did she think that…
Poc ho sé. I don’t know./How should I know?
Poc t’ho dirà. She’ll never tell you.
‘Never’
Note that ‘never’ does not always appear as mai in Catalan negative equivalents:
No n’he vist cap com aquest.
I’ve never seen one like this.
No m’ha dit ni una sola vegada que m’estima.
She has never once told me she loves me.
No hi tornaré pus. (Bal.)
I’ll never go back there.
‘Not even’, ‘not by a long way’, ‘not at all’
‘Not even’ may be expressed by ni alone, or by ni tan sols:
Ni (tan sols) m’han conegut. They didn’t even recognize me.
Ni de lluny and ni de bon tros correspond to ‘not by a long way’:
No han complert, ni de bon tros/ni de lluny, els requisits de la convocatòria.
They haven’t met, by a long way, the requirements of the application procedure.
Adverbial no … gens ‘not at all’ can be reinforced with ni mica:
No m’has convençut gens ni mica.
You haven’t convinced me in the slightest./You haven’t begun to convince me.
No … gota ‘not … a drop’ and no … mica ‘not … a bit’ are idiomatic informal equivalents of no … gens:
No s’hi van lluir gota.
They didn’t do at all well at it./They didn’t make much of a good showing.
No era mica agradable.
It wasn’t a bit nice.
En absolut is another expression for ‘(not) at all’:
No ho faré en absolut. I won’t do it at all.
–Et fa res que vingui? –En absolut. ‘Do you mind if I come?’ ‘Not at all.’
26.1.7 TAMPOC ‘NEITHER’
Tampoc ‘neither’, ‘not …either’, ‘nor’ (the negative of també ‘also’) functions rather like a negative polarity item. In elliptical constructions it can stand alone or can be anticipated by ni.
No t’ha agradat? A mi tampoc.
Didn’t you like it? Neither did I.
No han arribat els jugadors, ni l’àrbitre tampoc.
The players haven’t arrived, nor has the referee/and the referee hasn’t either.
The system no/ni/sense + verb + tampoc exists side by side with tampoc (+ no) + verb, in a similar way to the other negative polarity items (26.1.5).
No podem oblidar tampoc que …/Tampoc (no) podem oblidar que …
Nor should we forget that…/We shouldn’t forget either that…
Els altres no s’hi sabien avenir tampoc./Els altres tampoc (no) s’hi sabien avenir.
The others couldn’t agree to it either.
No ens van xiular però no ens aplaudiren tampoc./No ens van xiular però tampoc (no) ens aplaudiren.
We did not get booed (lit. whistled) but we did not get clapped either.
26.1.8 PAS
Pas is used in negative sentences in central Catalan in quite a different way from French pas. Catalan pas, in negative constructions, has a special communicative function of negating possible implications of what is being said (that is: ‘despite appearances’/‘despite what one might suppose’, ‘after all’):
Dir que està núvol no vol dir pas que hagi de ploure.
Saying it’s cloudy doesn’t mean it’s going to rain.
No, senyor: no sóc pas l’home que vostè busca.
No, sir: I am not the man you are looking for.
No vindràs pas demà de mati? Jo que t’hauria esperat.
You won’t be coming tomorrow morning (after all)? And I would have been waiting in for you.
Some questions are formulated with no … pas when implications might be attached to a likely answer:
No has vist pas en Joan?
You haven’t (by any chance) seen Joan? (Because if you had …)
Pas can be also used in prohibitions (see 28.2), telling someone not to do something they were about to do, or might be expected to do:
Això no ho féssiu pas, que és molt perillós.
I wouldn’t do that; it’s very dangerous.
No aturis pas l’autobús, que no portem diners.
Don’t stop the bus, because we haven’t got any money on us.
No obris pas una altra ampolla, que ja en tindrem prou amb aquesta.
Don’t open another bottle; we’ll have enough with this one.
Pas can also appear in elliptical negative sentences:
–Heu comprat moltes joguines? –No pas cap per a tu.
‘Have you bought a lot of toys?’ ‘(Yes but) not for you.’
–Portes una vida ordenada? –Sí, però no pas per voluntat pròpia.
‘Do you lead an orderly life?’ ‘Yes, but not from choice.’
Pas can avoid contiguous repetition of no when the second term of a comparison is a negative clause, and the construction contains an ‘expletive no’ (see 5.2.2).
És més barat anar de vacances a certs països que no pas no anar-hi.
It’s cheaper to go on holiday in certain countries than not to go there.
Contrary to what occurs in French, the Catalan pas can be followed by negative polarity items. Because of the special meaning of Catalan pas this does not result in a double negation:
No he vist pas ningú. I haven’t seen anyone.
No pensem anar-hi pas mai. We don’t intend to go there ever.
Note that pas is exceptional in being able to occur between haver and the participle in compound (perfect) tenses, and likewise between the auxiliary element va- and the infinitive in the preterite. Unlike other negative items, though, it cannot precede the inflected verb form.
No he dit pas això./No he pas dit això.I didn’t say that./I haven’t said that. *Pas (no) he dit això.
No he dit res./Res no he dit.I haven’t said anything. *No he res dit.
No ho van consentir pas./No ho van pas consentir.They didn’t accept it. *Pas (no) ho van consentir.
In North Catalan, pas can be the only element in a negative sentence; that is, in this variety it has taken on the role of the simple marker of negation (as in Occitan and in popular French):
Cantis pas aquesta cançó. Don’t sing that song.
Els mainatges diuen pas aquestes coses. Young children don’t say those things.
26.1.9 EXPRESSING ‘NO MORE’/‘NOT …ANY MORE’/‘NO LONGER’
No … més (Bal. no … pus) and ja no are used to express that a situation no longer obtains.
No n’he sentit a parlar més.
I have heard nothing more (said) about it.
Ja no construeixen cases com aquestes.
They don’t build houses like that any more.
Abans em semblava simpàtica, però ja no la hi trobo.
I used to think she was nice, but I don’t any longer.
26.2 FURTHER POINTS ON NEGATION
26.2.1 THE SCOPE OF NEGATION
The category of general negation concerns cases in which a whole sentence is negated, as in:
M’agraden les novel·les policíaques. I like detective novels.
No m’agraden les novel·les policíaques. I don’t like detective novels.
Ho enllestirà avui. He will finish it today.
No ho enllestirà avui. He will not finish it today.
In some apparent cases of general negation the negative attached to a main verb logically belongs with a subordinate verb in a complement clause. These cases of negative raising are discussed in 26.2.1.2.
Negation need not apply to the whole of a sentence, however, and it is possible to negate a particular element within an affirmative construction.
He enllestit el pròleg, però no la conclusió.
I have finished the preface but not the conclusion.
Some types of particular ne
gation are discussed below in 26.2.1.1.
26.2.1.1 Particular negation
(i) Negating nouns, adjectives, adverbs and quantifiers
In addition to the pattern of morphological negation of nouns, adjectives, and so on, with prefixes like a-, des-, in-, it is possible to negate individual lexical items by placing no before them. In such instances no introduces the idea of opposition rather than of absence, and, consequently, only abstract concepts: ideas, opinions or descriptions, not material things (*el no-vi ‘non-wine’) can be ‘negated’ by this means): la no-intervenció ‘non-intervention’, un pacte de no-agressió ‘a non-aggression pact’, una beguda no alcohòlica ‘a non-alcoholic drink’, una cosa no estranya per a ell ‘something not strange to him’, no gaire bé ‘not very well’, no sempre ‘not always’, no tothom ‘not everybody’, no gaires persones ‘not many people’.
No gaires persones tenen les idees tan clares, i no sempre raonen amb tanta contundència.
Not many people have such clear ideas, and not always do they argue with such vigour.
Notice the hyphen in the element no- used with a noun; see 37.6iv.
(ii) Negating participles, gerunds and infinitives
Participles, gerunds, and infinitives behave as verbs (although non-finite) with respect to negation, so negating one of these elements implies the general negation of the non-finite clause it appears in:
Els llibres no llegits no aprofiten a ningú.
Books not read are of no benefit to anyone.
Els fills no desitjats sempre pateixen.
Unwanted children always suffer.
No dient aquestes coses seran condemnats.
Through not saying these things they will be condemned.
No vivint a la casa va perdre els seus drets de llogater.
By not living in the house she lost her tenant’s rights.
És un delicte no aturar-se en veure un accident.
It is an offence not to stop upon witnessing an accident.
Han telefonat per no haver d’anar-hi.
They have phoned so as not to have to go there.
26.2.1.2 Negative raising
When the verb in the main clause is creure ‘think’/‘believe’, desitjar/voler ‘want’, pensar ‘think’/‘intend’, semblar ‘seem’, trobar ‘find’, and others of similar meaning, there is no difference in force whether negation is applied to the verb in the main or the subordinate clause, though often the negation might more ‘logically’ be attached to the subordinate verb. Catalan and English are similar in this respect. (On the use of the subjunctive in the subordinate clause after a negative, see 19.2.4iv.)
Creu que no li diran res. = No creu que li diguin res.
He thinks they won’t say anything to him. = He doesn’t think they will say anything to him.
Desitgen no veure’l mai més. = No desitgen veure’l mai més.
They want never to see him again. = They don’t want to see him ever again.
Pensen no fer-li cap regal. = No pensen fer-li cap regal.
They intend not to give her a present. = They do not intend to give her a present.
Em sembla que no està bé. = No em sembla que estigui bé.
I think it’s not right. = I don’t think it’s right.
Trobem que això no és raonable. = No trobem que això sigui raonable.
We find that this is not reasonable. = We don’t find this is reasonable.
However with the majority of verbs a clear distinction of meaning is made according to whether no stands with the main verb or the subordinate:
Jo no he escollit tornar a aquesta feina.
I have not chosen to come back to this job.
cf. Jo he escollit no tornar a aquesta feina.
I have chosen not to come back to this job.
No esperen que compris el cotxe.
They aren’t expecting you to buy the car.
cf. Esperen que no compris el cotxe.
They are expecting you not to buy the car.
No va prometre venir.
She didn’t promise to come.
cf. Va prometre no venir.
She promised not to come.
27 INTERROGATION AND EXCLAMATION
27.1 INTERROGATION
27.1.1 DIRECT YES/NO QUESTIONS
The basic word-order scheme of Catalan is explained in Chapter 36. The formulation of yes/no questions in Catalan does not entail change of word order between an affirmative and a corresponding interrogative sentence. Thus, just as the statement ‘Pere has come’ could be expressed as either (a) Ha vingut en Pere or (b) En Pere ha vingut, so the question ‘Has Pere come?’ can be formed as either (a) Ha vingut en Pere? or (b) En Pere ha vingut?
The variations in word order in these examples do not depend on the difference between question and statement but on which part of the sentence is in focus, this being en Pere in (a) and ha vingut in (b). What gives a sentence an interrogative sense, then, marking the difference between T’estimo Ί love you’ and T’estimo? ‘Do I love you?’, is not word order but intonation. (The usual description is that questions lack the final fall in pitch that statements present.)
Use of the inverted question mark ¿, employed to indicate either the beginning of a whole question or the part of a sentence that contains the interrogative element, has recently been proscribed by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (see 37.7). However it still appears in many texts particularly (a) to show that a sentence – usually a long one – which does not begin with an interrogative word is to be read as a question, or (b) to mark off the interrogative part of a sentence which contains a topicalized phrase, or a subordinate clause preceding the question:
¿No és idèntica llur política actual a la que seguien en la legislatura anterior?
Isn’t their present policy identical to the one they pursued in the previous parliament?
Les conclusions que hem tret d’aquest debat i que tots subscrivim, ¿realemt justifiquen que mantinguem aquesta postura?
Can our maintenance of this position really be justified by the conclusions which we have drawn from this debate and to which we all subscribe?
27.1.1.1 Introductory que
In the spoken language, short questions are generally introduced by an expletive unstressed que (not to be confused with què):
Hi ha ningú a la casa? = Que hi ha ningú a la casa?
Is there anybody in?
Has pagat la factura del gas? = Que has pagat la factura del gas?
Have you paid the gas bill?
No voleu venir-hi? = Que no voleu venir-hi?
Don’t you want to come?
The que (see 15.2.3) in these short questions is optional (although its use is very strongly favoured in spoken eastern central Catalan) and it does not convey any nuance of meaning or emphasis.
Another use of que is to introduce echo-questions (where its function is evidently related to an ellipsis of an underlying clause like Dius que …?):
–Vas al bar? –Que si vaig al bar? I tant que hi vaig!
‘Are you going to the bar?’ ‘Going to the bar? I sure am!’
–A on vas? –Que a on vaig? Vaig a can Pep.
‘Where are you going?’ ‘Where am I going? I’m going to Pep’s house.’
27.1.1.2 Tag questions
Direct yes/no questions can be reinforced adding no? or oi? (and, colloquially, eh?) at the end. This device covers the whole set of tag questions in English:
Som amics, oi? = Som amics, no?
We’re friends, aren’t we?
Trucaràs a les deu, oi? = Trucaràs a les deu, no?
You’ll phone at 10 o’clock, won’t you?
It is to be observed, though, that no? cannot follow a negative question:
No és pas tan dolent, oi?*No és pas tan dolent, no? It’s not so bad, is it?
Another reinforcing construction involves introducing a question with oi que:
Oi que t’agrada? You do like it, don’t you?
Oi que no ho tornaran a fer? They won’t do it again, will they?
27.1.2 INDIRECT YES/NO QUESTIONS
An indirect yes/no question is introduced by si ‘if’/‘whether’ (see 15.3) and normally depends on verbs expressing knowledge or enquiry:
No sé si ho faran.
I don’t know whether/if they’ll do it.
No sé si plou ο no.
I don’t know whether or not it’s raining.
Ignorava si el seu cognom era de procedència russa.
I did not know if her surname was of Russian origin.
Els preguntaré si volen venir a la festa.
I’ll ask them if they want to come to the party.
Digues-li si pot guardar-nos els nens avui vespre.
Check whether he can baby-sit for us tonight.
27.1.3 WH-QUESTIONS (PARTIAL QUESTIONS)
27.1.3.1 Qui? ‘who?’ què? ‘what?’
Qui? ‘who?’ is the interrogative pronoun referring to persons and què? ‘what?’ is its counterpart referring to things:
Qui vol venir a fer una volta? Who wants to come for a stroll?
Qui va dir què? Who said what?