Article published in:
Negation and Contact: With special focus on Singapore English
Edited by Debra Ziegeler and Zhiming Bao
[Studies in Language Companion Series 183] 2017
► pp. 115–149

Chapter 6
Englishes, English creoles and their negative indefinites

This is a typological study of negative indefinites, i.e., the counterparts to standard English nobody and nothing, in Englishes, primarily the New Englishes, and in English Creoles. Particular attention goes to “Negative Concord” (“NC”), i.e. the exponence of negation through both a negative indefinite and a verbal negator. The study confirms that NC is widespread in both Englishes and English Creoles and claims that although this holds for both Englishes and English Creoles, they have to be considered separately and that there is a lot of variation with respect to NC subtypes. Important, but mostly for the New Englishes, is whether or not the British English input allowed NC. For Creoles special attention goes to the fact that they typically have created a new verbal negator (no).

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
  • 3.Standard English negative indefinites from a typological perspective
  • 4.Englishes
  • 5.English Creoles
    • 5.1Caribbean Creoles
    • 5.2African Creoles
    • 5.3Pacific Creoles
    • 5.4Conclusion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 31 May 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.183.06van
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