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Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system

  • Peter Slomanson
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Complex Processes in New Languages
This chapter is in the book Complex Processes in New Languages

Abstract

This paper presents data from negation in Sri Lankan Malay (SLM), a language whose grammar has converged typologically on the grammar of Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil, and to some extent of Sinhala. SLM negation exhibits greater inflectional complexity than its lexifier, by encoding finiteness and tense features. SLM has also developed independently of the other Sri Lankan languages. It has developed a strict morphological contrast between all non-finite negation contexts on the one hand (infinitives, participles, and imperatives), and finite negation contexts (tensed verbs). This effectively circumvents the Dravidian constraint blocking co-occurring tense and negation morphology, in order to emphasize a contrast which is salient in the discourse structure that is common to the languages in the sprachbund.

Abstract

This paper presents data from negation in Sri Lankan Malay (SLM), a language whose grammar has converged typologically on the grammar of Sri Lankan Muslim Tamil, and to some extent of Sinhala. SLM negation exhibits greater inflectional complexity than its lexifier, by encoding finiteness and tense features. SLM has also developed independently of the other Sri Lankan languages. It has developed a strict morphological contrast between all non-finite negation contexts on the one hand (infinitives, participles, and imperatives), and finite negation contexts (tensed verbs). This effectively circumvents the Dravidian constraint blocking co-occurring tense and negation morphology, in order to emphasize a contrast which is salient in the discourse structure that is common to the languages in the sprachbund.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification 1
  5. Part I. Morpho-phonology
  6. Initial vowel agglutination in the Gulf of Guinea creoles 29
  7. Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not? 51
  8. Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness 75
  9. Part II. Verbal morphology
  10. Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases 99
  11. The invisible hand in creole genesis 115
  12. Complexification or regularization of paradigms 159
  13. Part III. Nominals
  14. The Mauritian Creole determiner system 173
  15. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 201
  16. Part IV. The selection of features in complex morphology
  17. Contact, complexification and change in Mindanao Chabacano structure 223
  18. Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system 243
  19. Contact language formation in evolutionary terms 265
  20. Part V. Evaluating simplification and complexification
  21. Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation 293
  22. Competition and selection 317
  23. Complexity and the age of languages 345
  24. Part VI. Postscript
  25. Restructuring, hybridization, and complexity in language evolution 367
  26. Language index 401
  27. Subject index 405
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.35.16slo

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification 1
  5. Part I. Morpho-phonology
  6. Initial vowel agglutination in the Gulf of Guinea creoles 29
  7. Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not? 51
  8. Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness 75
  9. Part II. Verbal morphology
  10. Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases 99
  11. The invisible hand in creole genesis 115
  12. Complexification or regularization of paradigms 159
  13. Part III. Nominals
  14. The Mauritian Creole determiner system 173
  15. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 201
  16. Part IV. The selection of features in complex morphology
  17. Contact, complexification and change in Mindanao Chabacano structure 223
  18. Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system 243
  19. Contact language formation in evolutionary terms 265
  20. Part V. Evaluating simplification and complexification
  21. Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation 293
  22. Competition and selection 317
  23. Complexity and the age of languages 345
  24. Part VI. Postscript
  25. Restructuring, hybridization, and complexity in language evolution 367
  26. Language index 401
  27. Subject index 405
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