Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 9:2 (2019) ► pp.208–238

Negation in Kulina

A double polarity swap

| University of Antwerp
| University of Antwerp
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.
Keywords: negative existential, negative pro-sentence, semantic bleaching, diachrony of negation, Jespersen Cycle, Negative Existential Cycle
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Kulina language and data
  • 3.A synchronic picture of negation marking in Kulina
    • 3.1Types of negation
      • 3.1.1Standard negation and ascriptive negation
      • 3.1.2Derivational negation
      • 3.1.3Existential negation
      • 3.1.4Privative negation
      • 3.1.5Negative pro-sentence (“no”)
    • 3.2Schematic summary of the negation forms
    • 3.3Taking stock of hi(ra) and nowe
  • 4.Towards a reconstruction of negation marking
    • 4.1From existential negation to standard negation
    • 4.2 nowe (hi)ra: A new existential negation
      • 4.2.1 (hi)ra: From diachronically negative to synchronically neutral
      • 4.2.2 nowe: From diachronically neutral to synchronically negative
    • 4.3An open issue
  • 5.Typological and diachronic relevance
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.18007.kra
References (42)
References
Agnew, Arlene. 1963. Culina Grammar Outline. Información de Campo 90.Google Scholar
Antunes de Araujo, Gabriel. 2004. A Grammar of Sabanê: A Nambikwaran Language. Utrecht: LOT. Doctoral dissertation, University of Leiden.Google Scholar
Bréal, Michel. 1897. Essai de sémantique. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Chandless, William. 1869. Notes of a Journey up the River Juruá. The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 391.296–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chapman, Shirley & Desmond C. Derbyshire. 1991. Paumarí. Handbook of Amazonian Languages ed. by Desmond C. Derbyshire & Geoffrey K. Pullum, 161–354. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Croft, William. 1991. The Evolution of Negation. Journal of Linguistics 271.1–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Devos, Maud & Daniel Van Olmen. 2013. Describing and Explaining the Variation of Bantu Imperatives and Prohibitives. Studies in Language 371.1–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dienst, Stefan. 2006. A Reference Grammar of Kulina. Doctoral dissertation, La Trobe University.Google Scholar
. 2009a. The Internal Classifications of the Arawan Languages. LIAMES 81.61–67.Google Scholar
. 2009b. Stative Verbs in Kulina. ReVEL. Special edition n. 31.Google Scholar
. 2014. A Grammar of Kulina. Mouton Grammar Library, Volume 661. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 1999. Arawá. The Amazonian Languages ed. by R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, 293–306. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2004a. Proto-Arawá Phonology. Anthropological Linguistics 46:1.1–83.Google Scholar
2004b. The Jarawara Language of Southern Amazonia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2004c. Adjective Classes in Typological Perspective. Adjective Classes: A Cross-linguistic Typology ed. by R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Aikhenvald, 1–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Floyd, Simeon. 2016. Answers to Polarity Questions in South American Languages. Paper presented at Amazonicas-VI, Leticia & Tabatinga, May 23–28, 2016.
Givón, Talmy. 1978. Negation in Language: Pragmatics, Function, Ontology. Pragmatics ed. by Peter Cole, 69–112. New York: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Mechthild Reh. 1984. Grammaticalization and Reanalysis in African Languages. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Elisabeth Closs Traugott. 1993 [2003]. Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul. 1991. On Some Principles of Grammaticalization. Approaches to Grammaticalization ed. by Elisabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine, 17–35 (Vol.11.) (Typological Studies in Language, 19). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 21 Vols.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Horn, Laurence T. 2001. Flaubert Triggers, Squatitive Negation, and Other Quirks of Grammar. Perspectives on Negation and Polarity Items ed. by Jack Hoeksema, Hotze Rullmann, Victor Sanchez Valencia & Ton van der Wouden, 173–200. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 40). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jespersen, Otto. 1917. Negation in English and Other Languages. Kopenhagen: Høst.Google Scholar
. 1922. Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Koop, Gordon. 1977 [2008]. Processes and Roles in Dení Clause Structure. Anápolis: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Brazil.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine. 1912. L’évolution des formes grammaticales. Scientia 121.384–400. [Reprinted in Meillet, Antoine. 1921. Linguistique historique et linguistique générale 130–148. Paris: H. Champion.]Google Scholar
Miestamo, Matti. 2005. Standard Negation. The Negation of Declarative Verbal Main Clauses in a Typological Perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Monserrat, Ruth & Abel O. Silva. 1986. Gramática da língua Kulina: dialeto do Igarapé do Anjo. Rio Branco: Conselho Indigenista Missionário.Google Scholar
Nerlich, Brigitte. 1990. Change in Language: Whitney, Bréal, and Wegener. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nies, Joyce. 1976. Suplemento a listas comparativas de palabras usuales en idiomas vernáculos de la selva. (Datos etno-lingüísticos 49). Lima, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.Google Scholar
Norde, Muriel. 1999. Förlust av kasus och sekundära prepositioner i fornsvenskan [Deflexion and Secondary Adpositions in Old Swedish]. Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek [Journal of Scandinavian studies] 20:2.25–64.Google Scholar
. 2000. The Grammaticalization of Adpositions in the History of Swedish. Proceedings of the Xth Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics ed. by Guðrún Þórhallsdóttir, 177–187. Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Payne, John R. 1985. Negation. Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Vol 11. Clause Structure. ed. by Timothy Shopen, 197–242. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Silva, Abel O. & Ruth Monserrat. 1984. Dicionário Kulina-Português e Português-Kulina. Rio Branco: CIMI.Google Scholar
Tiss, Frank. 2004. Gramática da língua madiha (kulina). São Leopoldo: Oikos.Google Scholar
van der Auwera, Johan. 2009. The Jespersen Cycles. Cyclical Change ed. by Elly van Gelderen, 35–71. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 146). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van der Auwera, Johan & Lauren Van Alsenoy. 2014. On the Relation between Double Clausal Negation and Negative Concord. The Diachrony of Negation ed. by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen & Jacqueline Visconti, 13–46. (Studies in Language Companion Series, 160). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
. 2016. On the Typology of Negative Concord. Studies in Language 401.473–512. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Gelderen, Elly. 2011. The Linguistic Cycle. Language Change and the Language Faculty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Veselinova, Ljuba. 2013. Negative Existentials: A Cross-Linguistic Study. Rivista di Linguistica 25:1.107–145.Google Scholar
. 2014. The Negative Existential Cycle Revisited. Linguistics 521.1327–1369.Google Scholar
Vossen, Frens. 2016. On the Typology of the Jespersen Cycles. Doctoral dissertation, University of Antwerp.Google Scholar
Wessén, Elias. 1968. Svensk språkhistoria I: Ljudlära och ordböjningslära. [Reprinted in Wessén, Elias. 1992. Edsbruk: Akademitryck.]Google Scholar