1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Journal of Historical Linguistics
  4. Volume 9, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 9, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2210-2116
  • E-ISSN: 2210-2124
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

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 are involved in a double polarity swap: (i) an originally neutral lexical item (the dynamic verb ‘show’) has become negative through contamination, and (ii) an originally negative element , which was responsible for the contamination, is bleaching into a semantically neutral auxiliary. This lexeme , 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.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.18007.kra
2019-10-29
2025-04-27

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/jhl.18007.kra
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Agnew, Arlene
    1963 Culina Grammar Outline. Información de Campo 90.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Antunes de Araujo, Gabriel
    2004 A Grammar of Sabanê: A Nambikwaran Language. Utrecht: LOT. Doctoral dissertation, University of Leiden.
  3. Bréal, Michel
    1897 Essai de sémantique. Paris: Hachette.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Chandless, William
    1869 Notes of a Journey up the River Juruá. The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society39.296–311. 10.2307/1798554
     https://doi.org/10.2307/1798554 [Google Scholar]
  5. Chapman, Shirley & Desmond C. Derbyshire
    1991 Paumarí. Handbook of Amazonian Languagesed. byDesmond C. Derbyshire & Geoffrey K. Pullum, 161–354. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Croft, William
    1991 The Evolution of Negation. Journal of Linguistics27.1–27. 10.1017/S0022226700012391
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226700012391 [Google Scholar]
  7. Devos, Maud & Daniel Van Olmen
    2013 Describing and Explaining the Variation of Bantu Imperatives and Prohibitives. Studies in Language37.1–57. 10.1075/sl.37.1.01dev
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.37.1.01dev [Google Scholar]
  8. Dienst, Stefan
    2006 A Reference Grammar of Kulina. Doctoral dissertation, La Trobe University.
  9. 2009a The Internal Classifications of the Arawan Languages. LIAMES8.61–67.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. 2009b Stative Verbs in Kulina. ReVEL. Special editionn.3.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. 2014 A Grammar of Kulina. Mouton Grammar Library, Volume66. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110341911
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110341911 [Google Scholar]
  12. Dixon, R. M. W.
    1999 Arawá. The Amazonian Languagesed. byR. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, 293–306. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. 2004a Proto-Arawá Phonology. Anthropological Linguistics46:1.1–83.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. 2004b The Jarawara Language of Southern Amazonia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. 2004c Adjective Classes in Typological Perspective. Adjective Classes: A Cross-linguistic Typologyed. byR. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Aikhenvald, 1–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Floyd, Simeon
    2016 Answers to Polarity Questions in South American Languages. Paper presented atAmazonicas-VI, Leticia & Tabatinga, May 23–28, 2016.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Givón, Talmy
    1978 Negation in Language: Pragmatics, Function, Ontology. Pragmaticsed. byPeter Cole, 69–112. New York: Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Heine, Bernd & Mechthild Reh
    1984 Grammaticalization and Reanalysis in African Languages. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Hopper, Paul J. & Elisabeth Closs Traugott
    1993 [2003] Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Hopper, Paul
    1991 On Some Principles of Grammaticalization. Approaches to Grammaticalizationed. byElisabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine, 17–35 (Vol.1.) (Typological Studies in Language, 19). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2Vols.. 10.1075/tsl.19.1.04hop
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.19.1.04hop [Google Scholar]
  21. Horn, Laurence T.
    2001 Flaubert Triggers, Squatitive Negation, and Other Quirks of Grammar. Perspectives on Negation and Polarity Itemsed. byJack Hoeksema, Hotze Rullmann, Victor Sanchez Valencia & Ton van der Wouden, 173–200. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 40). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/la.40.08hor
     https://doi.org/10.1075/la.40.08hor [Google Scholar]
  22. Jespersen, Otto
    1917 Negation in English and Other Languages. Kopenhagen: Høst.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. 1922 Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin. London: George Allen & Unwin.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Koop, Gordon
    1977 [2008] Processes and Roles in Dení Clause Structure. Anápolis: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Brazil.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Meillet, Antoine
    1912 L’évolution des formes grammaticales. Scientia12.384–400. [Reprinted inMeillet, Antoine 1921 Linguistique historique et linguistique générale130–148. Paris: H. Champion.]
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Miestamo, Matti
    2005 Standard Negation. The Negation of Declarative Verbal Main Clauses in a Typological Perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Monserrat, Ruth & Abel O. Silva
    1986 Gramática da língua Kulina: dialeto do Igarapé do Anjo. Rio Branco: Conselho Indigenista Missionário.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Nerlich, Brigitte
    1990 Change in Language: Whitney, Bréal, and Wegener. London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. 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.
  30. 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]
  31. 2000 The Grammaticalization of Adpositions in the History of Swedish. Proceedings of the Xth Conference of Nordic and General Linguisticsed. byGuðrún Þórhallsdóttir, 177–187. Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Payne, John R.
    1985 Negation. Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Vol1. Clause Structure. ed. byTimothy Shopen, 197–242. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Silva, Abel O. & Ruth Monserrat
    1984 Dicionário Kulina-Português e Português-Kulina. Rio Branco: CIMI.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Tiss, Frank
    2004 Gramática da língua madiha (kulina). São Leopoldo: Oikos.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. van der Auwera, Johan
    2009 The Jespersen Cycles. Cyclical Changeed. byElly van Gelderen, 35–71. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 146). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/la.146.05auw
     https://doi.org/10.1075/la.146.05auw [Google Scholar]
  36. van der Auwera, Johan & Lauren Van Alsenoy
    2014 On the Relation between Double Clausal Negation and Negative Concord. The Diachrony of Negationed. byMaj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen & Jacqueline Visconti, 13–46. (Studies in Language Companion Series, 160). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. 2016 On the Typology of Negative Concord. Studies in Language40.473–512. 10.1075/sl.40.3.01van
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.40.3.01van [Google Scholar]
  38. van Gelderen, Elly
    2011 The Linguistic Cycle. Language Change and the Language Faculty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756056.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756056.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  39. Veselinova, Ljuba
    2013 Negative Existentials: A Cross-Linguistic Study. Rivista di Linguistica25:1.107–145.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. 2014 The Negative Existential Cycle Revisited. Linguistics52.1327–1369.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Vossen, Frens
    2016 On the Typology of the Jespersen Cycles. Doctoral dissertation, University of Antwerp.
  42. Wessén, Elias
    1968 Svensk språkhistoria I: Ljudlära och ordböjningslära. [Reprinted inWessén, Elias 1992 Edsbruk: Akademitryck.]
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.18007.kra
Loading
Negation in Kulina
Journal of Historical Linguistics 9, 208 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.18007.kra
/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.18007.kra
/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.18007.kra
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): diachrony of negation; Jespersen Cycle; negative existential; Negative Existential Cycle; negative pro-sentence; semantic bleaching

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error