RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Pons Bordería, Salvador A1 Schwenter, Scott A. YR 2005 T1 Polar meaning and “expletive” negation in approximative adverbs: Spanish por poco (no) JF Journal of Historical Pragmatics VO 6 IS 2 SP 262 OP 282 DO https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.6.2.06pon PB John Benjamins SN 1566-5852, AB In this paper we provide a synchronic and diachronic analysis of an instance of so-called “expletive” negation in the Spanish approximative adverb por poco. Synchronically, we show that this adverb, when combined with the sentence negator no, is ambiguous between ~p (“expletive”) and ~~p (“canonical”) meanings. Diachronically, we show that this ambiguity arose due to a change in the negation system of Spanish around the fifteenth century. As a result, the supposed instances of “expletive” negation found in present-day uses of por poco are not really expletive at all, but rather are a holdover from the Old Spanish requirement of preverbal negative concord., UL https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jhp.6.2.06pon