Bhasha Journal of South Asian Linguistics, Philology
and Grammatical Traditions

Rivista | Bhasha
Fascicolo | 1 | 1 | 2022
Articolo | Towards a Typology of Negation in South Asian Languages

Towards a Typology of Negation in South Asian Languages

Abstract

The present study is a preliminary typology of negation in South Asian languages, based on a database of 25 structural features for 39 languages from three language families and two language isolates. The documented features include the form of the negative marker, the relation of the negative construction to the corresponding affirmative form, whether there are different negative constructions used in different TAM categories, and whether these constructions are symmetric or asymmetric. This study also provides a first analysis of the distribution of these different negative-marking strategies throughout the subcontinent and suggests that a combination of both family bias and areal pressure are needed to account for many of the observed distributions. In some cases of language contact, the data also allows us to determine with some certainty the type of contact situation which has led to the negative-marking patterns documented in the database.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Presentato: 10 Dicembre 2021 | Accettato: 02 Marzo 2022 | Pubblicato 29 Aprile 2022 | Lingua: en

Keywords South AsiaAreal linguisticsLanguage contactHistorical linguisticsTypologyNegation


Leggi questo articolo