Nominal privative suffixes as a diachronic source of verbal negative markers
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Harold Koch
Abstract
Inspired by discussions of privatives as a ‘previously unidentified source’ for verbal negation in main clauses, with evidence from Arawakan languages (Michael 2014; Rybka & Michael 2019), this paper builds on earlier observations on the relation of privative nominal suffixes to verbal negative inflections in Australian languages (Dixon 1980; Phillips 2023). Using data from selected languages, I attempt to trace the diachronic processes involved, specifically the mechanisms (reanalysis and extension) and motivations (especially pragmatic) behind the insubordinations which lead via somewhat different pathways either to indicative negatives (standard negation) or imperative negatives (prohibitives). I hope thereby to have contributed to a fuller appreciation of insubordination as factor in diachronic change (cf. Evans 2007; Mithun 2008; Cristofaro 2017).
Abstract
Inspired by discussions of privatives as a ‘previously unidentified source’ for verbal negation in main clauses, with evidence from Arawakan languages (Michael 2014; Rybka & Michael 2019), this paper builds on earlier observations on the relation of privative nominal suffixes to verbal negative inflections in Australian languages (Dixon 1980; Phillips 2023). Using data from selected languages, I attempt to trace the diachronic processes involved, specifically the mechanisms (reanalysis and extension) and motivations (especially pragmatic) behind the insubordinations which lead via somewhat different pathways either to indicative negatives (standard negation) or imperative negatives (prohibitives). I hope thereby to have contributed to a fuller appreciation of insubordination as factor in diachronic change (cf. Evans 2007; Mithun 2008; Cristofaro 2017).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Resurrecting rhymes, reasons and (no) rhotics 5
- Diachronic phonology with Contrastive Hierarchy Theory 20
- The life cycle of phonological patterns explains drift in sound change 35
- The diachronic typology of retroflex vowels 50
- Diachronic shifts among sound ideophones 62
- The classification of the Plains Algonquian languages 79
- Modelling combined linguistic and non-linguistic evidence in language reconstruction 94
- Dissimilatory constraints discriminate between variants in analogical change 110
- Patterns of suppletion in inflection revisited 128
- Differential object marking in early Italo-Romance and old Sardinian 150
- Semantic factors in case loss 166
- Morphosyntactic borrowing in closely related varieties 184
- Nominal privative suffixes as a diachronic source of verbal negative markers 198
- The emergence of oblique subjects 215
- Grammaticalization of sentence adverbs and modal particles revisited 232
- A discourse analysis of left-dislocation in Old English 249
- The semantics of word borrowing in late medieval English 263
- Approximative adverbs in modern and pre-modern languages 279
- The history of numerals as a history of East African languages 294
- Language index 307
- Subject index 309
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Resurrecting rhymes, reasons and (no) rhotics 5
- Diachronic phonology with Contrastive Hierarchy Theory 20
- The life cycle of phonological patterns explains drift in sound change 35
- The diachronic typology of retroflex vowels 50
- Diachronic shifts among sound ideophones 62
- The classification of the Plains Algonquian languages 79
- Modelling combined linguistic and non-linguistic evidence in language reconstruction 94
- Dissimilatory constraints discriminate between variants in analogical change 110
- Patterns of suppletion in inflection revisited 128
- Differential object marking in early Italo-Romance and old Sardinian 150
- Semantic factors in case loss 166
- Morphosyntactic borrowing in closely related varieties 184
- Nominal privative suffixes as a diachronic source of verbal negative markers 198
- The emergence of oblique subjects 215
- Grammaticalization of sentence adverbs and modal particles revisited 232
- A discourse analysis of left-dislocation in Old English 249
- The semantics of word borrowing in late medieval English 263
- Approximative adverbs in modern and pre-modern languages 279
- The history of numerals as a history of East African languages 294
- Language index 307
- Subject index 309
