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    Universal quantifiers and negation
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    Universal quantifiers may also appear to the left of negation, as in the following example:

    Example 1

    Feikje is altyd net thús
    Feikje is always not home
    Feikje is never at home

    The sentence can have two readings. The commonest one is the one in which negation takes scope over the quantifier: it is not always the case that Feikje is at home. This reading has the strong presupposition that Feikje is at least sometimes at home. In this reading, the main intonation peak is on the second syllable of the quantifier, with a secondary peak on last word of the sentence. The rarer reading is the one in which the universal quantifier takes scope over negation: it is always the case that Feikje is not at home. In this reading, the main intonation peak is on the first syllable of the quantifier. In general, the presuppositional reading is accompanied by a two-peak intonation pattern, whereas the neutral reading has a one peak intonation pattern.

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    Likewise, other universal quantifiers can appear to the left of negation, while having the presuppositional reading in which negation takes scope over the quantifier. Some examples are given below:

    Example 2

    a. Men moat alles net sizze wat men tinkt, guods begripe it net
    one must everything not say what one thinks some understand it not
    Do not say everything you think, some people do not understand it
    b. Wy kinne allegearre net spinne, al hiene wy it flaaks om neat
    we can all not spin even.if had we the flax for nothing
    Not all of us can spin, even if we had the flax for free
    c. In tsjinst fan fiif-en-tritich jier. Dat komt wis elkenien net oer
    in service of twenty-five years that comes DcP everyone not about
    Thirty-five years with the same employer. That is not something that happens to everybody
    d. No, dat komt my alle dagen net oer
    well that comes me all days not about
    Well, that does not happen to me every day
    e. It sjitten mei carbydbussen op Âldjiersjûn is oeral net like goed ôfrûn
    the shooting with carbide.boxes on Old.Year's.Eve is everywhere not equally well ended
    Shooting with carbide boxes on New Year's Eve did not go off equally well everywhere

    All examples are characterised by the two-peak intonation pattern, with one peak on the last stressable syllable of the universal quantifier and the second peak on the last word of the sentence in which the quantifier is found. The quantifier allinneonly, which shares many properties with universal quantifiers, behaves in the same way:

    Example 3

    a. Se is ferkâlden. Mar dat is it allinne net. Hja moat nei de Wâlden
    she is cold.having but that is it only not she must to the Wâlden
    She has a cold. But it is not just that. She has to go to the Wâlden
    b. Mar dat wie it allinne net. Der wie ek noch in oare reden
    but that was it only not there was also yet an other reason
    But it was not only that. There was another reason as well
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      ABOUT THIS TOPIC
      Author(s):
      Eric Hoekstra
      Category:
      Frisian Syntax
      Publication date:
      07 August 2019
      Keywords:
      universal quantification scrambling negation high degree
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