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Historical Linguistics 2022: Selected papers from the 25th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Oxford, 1–5 August 2022
Edited by Holly Kennard, Emily Lindsay-Smith, Aditi Lahiri and Martin Maiden
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 369] 2025
► pp. 199–215

Nominal privative suffixes as a diachronic source of verbal negative markers

Evidence from Australian languages

| Australian National University
Inspired by discussions of privatives as a ‘previously unidentified source’ for verbal negation in main clauses, with evidence from Arawakan languages (Michael 2014; Rybka & Michael 2019), this paper builds on earlier observations on the relation of privative nominal suffixes to verbal negative inflections in Australian languages (Dixon 1980; Phillips 2023). Using data from selected languages, I attempt to trace the diachronic processes involved, specifically the mechanisms (reanalysis and extension) and motivations (especially pragmatic) behind the insubordinations which lead via somewhat different pathways either to indicative negatives (standard negation) or imperative negatives (prohibitives). I hope thereby to have contributed to a fuller appreciation of insubordination as factor in diachronic change (cf. Evans 2007; Mithun 2008; Cristofaro 2017).
Keywords: privative, negatives, prohibitives, insubordination, Australian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The privative and indicative negation
    • 2.1The privative case
    • 2.2Kaytetye privative and verbal negative
    • 2.3Privative and verbal negative in other languages
  • 3.Privative and Negative Imperative / Prohibitive
    • 3.1Negative commands accompanied by positive
    • 3.2Negative commands not accompanied by positive imperative
  • 4.Toward explanations
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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