1 A note on the complementizer –ela and the long-distance licensing of NPIs in Navarro-Labourdin Basque 1 Xabier Artiagoitia UPV/EHU xabier.artiagoitia@ehu.eus [November 2017, prepublication version] 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. Keywords: syntax, navarro-labourdin, complementizer, NPI, negation. 0. Introduction The purpose of this squib is rather simple: to show that Basque varieties which lack the so-called negative complementizer –enik and use, instead, the declarative complementizer –ela permit the same kind of readings and syntactic licensing as the former; evidence comes from written texts, present and past, and the intuition of several native speakers consulted. The article has the following structure: section 1 discusses the theoretical background needed to understand the relevance of the –ela vs –enik distinction, which bears on the long distance licensing of NPIs in subordinate clauses and on the interpretation of the subordinate clauses themselves; I review Laka’s (1990) original proposal, Uribe-Etxebarria’s (1994), and the more recent Artiagoitia & Elordieta (2015) and Elordieta & Artiagoitia (2016) works. Section 2 presents the relevant data from the Navarro-Labourdin dialect, with an 1 This squib goes for Iñaki Gaminde, a long life friend from AEK times since the early 80s. Zorionak, Iñaki, eta eskerrik asko euskarari emandako arnasagatik. I thank Jon Casenave, Maia Duguine, Maitena Duhalde, Céline Mounole for sharing their linguistic intuitions with me and Maider Huarte for comments on a previous draft. All remaining errors are my own. The following abbreviations are used throughout the article: IND = indicative, NEG = negation, NPI = negative polarity item, SUBJ = subjunctive.