1887
Volume 49, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0731-3500
  • E-ISSN: 2214-5907
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive description of the forms and distribution of negation expressions in southern Tujia (Tibeto-Burman), an endangered language spoken in southern China, from a diachronic perspective and comparing the negation forms with those in northern Tujia. Southern Tujia employs different negators, some of which are disappearing, while some new ones are being introduced. Furthermore, negation is sometimes preverbal, sometimes postverbal. We analyze this complex situation from a historical perspective, in which some aspects can be explained as continuations from Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and others as innovations, based on grammaticalization, semantic adaptation and borrowing, which have led to the present complex state of affairs. These kinds of changes can be compared to developments in other languages in the world, and therefore contribute to typological research on the expression and diachronic development of negation.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ltba.25009.lu
2026-02-16
2026-03-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Chen, Kang (陈康)
    2006土家语研究 [A study of Tujia]. Beijing: Minzu University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Croft, William
    1991 The evolution of negation. Journal of Linguistics27(1). 1–27. 10.1017/S0022226700012391
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226700012391 [Google Scholar]
  3. Dahl, Östen
    1979 Typology of sentence negation. Linguistics17(1–2). 79–106. 10.1515/ling.1979.17.1‑2.79
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1979.17.1-2.79 [Google Scholar]
  4. 2010 Typology of negation. InLaurence R. Horn (ed.), The expression of negation (The Expression of Cognitive Categories 4), 9–38. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110219302.9
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110219302.9 [Google Scholar]
  5. Dai, Qingxia (戴庆厦) & Tian Jing (田静)
    2005仙人土家语研究 [A study of Xianren Tujia]. Beijing: Central Institute of Nationalities Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Dryer, Matthew S.
    1988 Universals of negative position. InMichael Hammond, Edith A. Moravcsik & Jessica R. Wirth (eds.), Studies in syntactic typology (Typological Studies in Language 17), 93–124. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.17.10dry
    https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.17.10dry [Google Scholar]
  7. 1992 The Greenbergian word order correlations. Language68(1). 81–138. 10.1353/lan.1992.0028
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1992.0028 [Google Scholar]
  8. 2013 Order of negative morpheme and verb. InMatthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Horn, Laurence R.
    1989 [2001]A natural history of negation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Reprinted 2001 byCSLI Publications, Stanford.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Jespersen, Otto
    1917Negation in English and other languages. Copenhagen: A. F. Høst and Son.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Katili, Abdulgani A.
    1978 Kenangan [Recollections]. InJohn U. Wolff (ed.), Indonesian readings, 171–186. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kiryu, Kazuyiki
    2022 Diversity of negation. InNorihiko Hayashi & Takumi Ikeda (eds.), Grammatical phenomena of Sino-Tibetan languages, Volume 5: Diversity of negation, 261–276. Kyoto: Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Krasnoukhova, Olga, Johan van der Auwera & Mily Crevels
    2021Postverbal negation: Typology, diachrony, areality. Studies in Language, 45(3), 499–519. 10.1075/sl.00020.int
    https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.00020.int [Google Scholar]
  14. Lewis, Geoffrey L.
    1967Turkish grammar. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Li, Jingzhong (李敬忠)
    2000泸溪土家语 [The Luxi dialect of the Tujia language]. Beijing: Nationalities Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Lu, Man (鲁曼), Jeroen van de Weijer & Liu Zhengguang (刘正光)
    2020 Post-head negation in Tujia. Lingua2351, 102780. 10.1016/j.lingua.2019.102780
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2019.102780 [Google Scholar]
  17. Lu, Man (鲁曼), Jeroen van de Weijer, Chris Sinha & Liu Zhengguang (刘正光)
    2019 Optional ergative marking in Tujia. Lingua2231, 46–66. 10.1016/j.lingua.2019.02.011
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2019.02.011 [Google Scholar]
  18. Matisoff, James A.
    1973The grammar of Lahu (University of California Publications in Linguistics 75). Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. 2003Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and philosophy of Sino-Tibetan reconstruction. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Michailovsky, Boyd
    2017 Kiranti languages. InGraham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 2nd edn, 646–679. London, New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Nagano, Yasuhiko
    2022 Negation in rGyalrong. InNorihiko Hayashi & Takumi Ikeda (eds.), Grammatical phenomena of Sino-Tibetan languages, Volume 5: Diversity of negation, 117–140. Kyoto: Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Sangma, Bilnang K.
    2021 Negations in Dual (Garo), Boro, Rabha and Kokborok. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science26(9). 20–24.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Schachter, Paul & Timothy Shopen
    2007 Part-of-speech systems. InTimothy Shopen (eds.), Linguistic typology and syntactic description, Vol. I: Clause structure, 2nd edn, 1–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511619427.001
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619427.001 [Google Scholar]
  24. van der Auwera, Johan
    2010 On the diachrony of negation. InLaurence R. Horn (ed.), The expression of negation (The Expression of Cognitive Categories 4), 73–109. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110219302.73
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110219302.73 [Google Scholar]
  25. Veselinova, Ljuba N.
    2013 Negative existentials: A cross-linguistic study. Rivista di Linguistica25(1). 107–145.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. 2014 The negative existential cycle revisited. Linguistics52(6). 1327–1389. 10.1515/ling‑2014‑0021
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2014-0021 [Google Scholar]
  27. Wu, Bingcheng (吴秉承)
    2020 湖南凤凰山江苗语形容词研究 [A study on adjectives in the Shanjiang Miao language of Fenghuang, Hunan Province]. Master’s dissertation, Hunan Normal University.
  28. Wu, Zheng (吴铮)
    2007 藏缅语否定范畴研究 [A study of negative categories in Tibeto-Burman languages]. PhD dissertation, Minzu University of China.
  29. Yue, Anne O. (余靄芹)
    2003 Chinese dialects: grammar. InGraham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 84–125. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ltba.25009.lu
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/ltba.25009.lu
Loading

Data & Media loading...

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