Redundant negation with ne…quidem in Classical Latin

Classical Latin is a Double Negation language: sentential negation is expressed by a single morphologically negative element (a negative marker, a negative adverb or a negative indefinite); if multiple morphologically negative elements occur in a sentence, they cancel each other out. In Early and Classical Latin, exceptions to this general system are very rare (Ernout and Thomas 1953: 154–155, Molinelli 1988), and typically justified as particularly emphatic statements, where the additional negative element can be analyzed as a weakly syntactically integrated afterthought (Orlandini 2001: 67–72; Gianollo 2018: 189–191). Against this background, the behavior of the complex negative focus particle ne...quidem ‘not even, not either’ poses an interesting challenge, since with this particle redundant marking of negation is observed more often and, what is more important, in a systematic fashion. In this work I study ne...quidem in a corpus of Classical Latin and I propose an analysis connecting formal redundancy to the syntax of focus in Classical Latin: specifically, I analyze patterns of redundancy in terms of movement-mediated doubling, following Poletto (2008), and I attribute their existence to the interaction between the syntax of negation and focus. Moreover, I argue that these Latin patterns may have played a role in the development of Romance Negative Concord.