Introduction published in:
Postverbal negation
Edited by Olga Krasnoukhova, Johan van der Auwera and Mily Crevels
[Studies in Language 45:3] 2021
► pp. 499–519
Introduction

Postverbal negation

Typology, diachrony, areality

| Leiden University | University of Antwerp
| University of Antwerp
| Leiden University

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.

Keywords: postverbal negation, typology, diachrony, language contact, standard negation, prohibitive negation, existential negation, Jespersen Cycle, Negative Existential Cycle, Givón Cycle, negative verb
Article outline
  • 1.Setting the scene: Typological considerations
  • 2.Growing postverbal negators: Diachronic paths
  • 3.From syntactic to morphological negation?
  • 4.Acquiring postverbal negation through language contact
  • 5.The present volume: New insights
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 05 November 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.00020.int
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