Postverbal negation: Typology, diachrony, areality

Diachrony; Existential negation; Givón Cycle; Jespersen Cycle; Language contact; Negative Existential Cycle; Negative verb; Postverbal negation; Prohibitive negation; Standard negation; Typology; Language and Linguistics; Communication; Linguistics and Language

Abstract :

[en] The paper sketches the state of affairs of our understanding of postverbal negation. It departs from the typological finding that there is a cross-linguistic preference for a negator to precede the verb. Nevertheless, a sizable proportion of the world’s languages adhere to a pattern with a negator following the verb, and such negators are typically morphologically bound. The existence of this pattern, unfavorable from a functional perspective, calls for a diachronic explanation. The paper takes stock of diachronic processes that can lead to postverbal negation, in general, and suffixal negation, in particular. Furthermore, a language may acquire a pattern with postverbal negation through language contact, and this is yet another perspective that the paper addresses. Finally, we introduce the contributions to this volume, highlighting the new insights.

Disciplines :

Languages & linguistics

Author, co-author :

Krasnoukhova, Olga ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : linguistique, littérature et traduction > Linguistique synchronique anglaise ; Leiden University ; University of Antwerp

van der Auwera, Johan; University of Antwerp

Crevels, Mily; Leiden University

Language :

English

Title :

Postverbal negation: Typology, diachrony, areality

Publication date :

05 November 2021

Journal title :

Studies in Language

ISSN :

0378-4177

eISSN :

1569-9978

Publisher :

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

499 - 519

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/sl.00020.int.pdf

Funding text :

This study was made possible by the Research Foundation Flanders, whose financial support is gratefully acknowledged: grant No G024117N awarded to Johan van der Auwera. Olga Krasnoukhova would like to acknowledge funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 895548, made use of when finalizing the present paper.

Available on ORBi :

since 07 October 2024

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