The article deals with attributive modification in South American languages. It focuses on descriptive terms that denote properties. First of all, it is observed that attributive modification with ...property terms is possible in most, but not all South American languages. The typology of attributive constructions is argued to constitute a continuum, from syntactically loose nominal expressions, on the one hand, to morphologically complex structures which are ambiguous between compounding and derivation, on the other hand. The latter involves the use of lexico-grammatical means such as classifiers. The paper also raises the question of a possible diachronic link – at least for some languages – between intransitive clauses and postnominal property terms, which are often verbal in nature.
Abstract In the Jê languages standard negators tend to take a post-verbal position. This paper asks why this should be the case and therefore discusses earlier accounts relating Jê standard negators ...to either negative verbs or privative postpositions. We argue that these accounts do not have to exclude each other. In particular, we propose that an existential negator can be reanalyzed as a privative one. We also argue that if the origin of the standard negator is a verb with the meaning ‘finish’, we may be dealing with a scenario that is similar to the ‘Negative Existential Cycle’. In both, the existential negator denies the existence of a state of affairs and then turns into a standard negator. But whereas in the Negative Existential Cycle the non-existence of a state of affairs is modelled on the non-existence of an object, in the ‘new’ scenario the non-existence of a state of affairs derives from the fact that a process or event has come to an end.
Resumo Nas línguas Jê, os negadores padrão tendem a ocorrer na posição pós-verbal. Este artigo pergunta por que isso deve ser o caso e, portanto, discute análises anteriores, relacionando os negadores padrão Jê a verbos negativos ou a posposições privativas. Argumenta-se que essas duas possibilidades não são necessariamente mutuamente exclusivas. Em particular, sugerimos que um negador existencial pode vir a ser reanalisado como um negador privativo. Também argumentamos que, caso a origem do negador padrão seja um verbo com o significado de ‘terminar’, pode se tratar de um cenário semelhante ao chamado ‘Ciclo Negativo Existencial’. Em ambos esses cenários, o negador existencial serve para negar a existência de um estado de coisas, posteriormente transformando-se em um negador padrão. Mas, enquanto no Ciclo Negativo Existencial a expressão da inexistência de um estado de coisas tem por modelo a expressão da inexistência de um objeto, no ‘novo’ cenário, a inexistência de um estado de coisas é derivada do fato de um processo ou evento ter chegado ao fim.
With negative indefinite pronouns the Balto-Slavic languages all exhibit strict negative concord. In this study we investigate how negative concord functions in a context in which a connective ...negator (‘neither ... nor’) combines either phrases or clauses. We show that there are various types of non-concordant patterns.
Standard negation in Chibchan van der Auwera, Johan; Krasnoukhova, Olga
Liames : línguas indígenas americanas,
01/2020, Letnik:
20, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This paper surveys the form and the position of the negators of declarative verbal main clauses in the Chibchan languages. It attempts to describe the similarities and the differences, and it ...ventures hypotheses about the diachrony, primarily with an appeal to the Jespersen and Negative Existential Cycles. It sketches if and how the negators fit more general areal patterning, in particular, the Columbian Central American linguistic area.
This study compares standard negation in the indigenous languages of South America to the rest of the world. We show that South American languages not only prefer postverbal negation to preverbal ...negation and negative morphology to syntax, but postverbal morphological negation to any other negation strategy. The predominance of this strategy makes South America distinct from other macro-areas. The study also considers the areal distribution of negation on the South American continent. It shows that negation strategies each have their own concentration area. Postverbal morphological negation, which is the dominant strategy, turns out to be concentrated in the northwest of the continent, with the highest density around the boundaries between Colombia, Peru and Brazil. We suggest that the preference for postverbal morphological negation in South America is likely to be the result of language-internal mechanisms of negation renewal, coupled with language contact.
This study deals with clausal negation in Awa Pit, a Barbacoan language spoken in South America. By bringing together the data on negation from different varieties of the language, we present an ...analysis of synchronic patterns of negation marking. Based on the variation we suggest a number of innovations in the negation system, for which we put forward diachronic scenarios. Some innovations are likely to be contact-induced, whereas others are products of language-internal diachronic processes. The latter involve mechanisms associated with a classical ‘Jespersen Cycle’. However, Awa Pit offers us very non-classical Jespersen’s Cycles – at best. The case of Awa Pit is instructive as some of the scenarios that we suggest are likely to be relevant for other languages or languages families.
Negation in Kulina Krasnoukhova, Olga; van der Auwera, Johan
Journal of historical linguistics (Amsterdam. Online),
10/2019, Letnik:
9, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Abstract This study reconstructs the development of a negative existential and a negative pro-sentence in the Arawan language Kulina (Brazil-Peru). We demonstrate that the two elements forming the ...negative existential construction nowe (hi)ra- are involved in a double polarity swap: (i) an originally neutral lexical item (the dynamic verb nowe ‘show’) has become negative through contamination, and (ii) an originally negative element (hi)ra- , which was responsible for the contamination, is bleaching into a semantically neutral auxiliary. This lexeme nowe , with the auxiliary used only optionally, also functions as a negative pro-sentence now. Thus, synchronically we have a negative pro-sentence that has its origin in a semantically-neutral lexical item. Neither the source of the negative pro-sentence nor this diachronic path has surfaced in the literature on negation so far and thus they are instructive from diachronic and typological perspectives. The hypothesis enriches the literature on both the Jespersen Cycle and the Negative Existential Cycle.
Zaparoan negation revisited Van der Auwera, Johan; Krasnoukhova, Olga
Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica,
12/2019, Letnik:
11, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The paper revisits negation in the Zaparoan languages Arabela, Iquito and Záparo. For Iquito, which exhibits single, double as well as triple negation, we adopt a Jespersen Cycle perspective and find ...it to have explanatory force. For Záparo and Arabela another Cycle hypothesis proves enlightening, i.e., the Negative Existential Cycle. We hypothesize that both in Iquito and Záparo there is a diachronic link between the formal expression of negation and of the concept for ‘leave’/‘go’. We addressed the internal subclassification of the Zaparoan languages, showing that, at least for the structural feature of negation, the position of Arabela is closer to Záparo than to Iquito.
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