Home General Interest Negation in Pichi (Equatorial Guinea)
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Negation in Pichi (Equatorial Guinea)

The case for areal convergence
  • Kofi Yakpo
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
To Publisher Page
Negation and Negative Concord
This chapter is in the book Negation and Negative Concord

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed overview of negation in Pichi, the English-lexifier Creole spoken by the people of the island of Bioko (Equatorial Guinea). Pichi negation patterns align closely with areal negation patterns found across a broad swath of West Africa. Like the vast majority of genealogically diverse languages of the region, Pichi employs asymmetric negation strategies. These involve the use of subjunctive mood for the negation of imperatives, the use of suppletive portmanteau forms that combine negative polarity and aspect, and the use of an identity-equation copula that incorporates negative polarity, temporal-aspectual values, person deixis and pragmatic functions, and whose distribution is determined by complex syntactic rules. Negative concord is pragmatically determined, hence non-strict with common nouns, where it renders emphatic meanings. Negative concord is grammatically determined and strict with negative indefinite pronouns and with negative phrases fulfilling the functions of negative indefinite pronouns. I conclude that Pichi negation patterns are typically areal in character and cannot be seen to reflect a “Creole” linguistic type.

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed overview of negation in Pichi, the English-lexifier Creole spoken by the people of the island of Bioko (Equatorial Guinea). Pichi negation patterns align closely with areal negation patterns found across a broad swath of West Africa. Like the vast majority of genealogically diverse languages of the region, Pichi employs asymmetric negation strategies. These involve the use of subjunctive mood for the negation of imperatives, the use of suppletive portmanteau forms that combine negative polarity and aspect, and the use of an identity-equation copula that incorporates negative polarity, temporal-aspectual values, person deixis and pragmatic functions, and whose distribution is determined by complex syntactic rules. Negative concord is pragmatically determined, hence non-strict with common nouns, where it renders emphatic meanings. Negative concord is grammatically determined and strict with negative indefinite pronouns and with negative phrases fulfilling the functions of negative indefinite pronouns. I conclude that Pichi negation patterns are typically areal in character and cannot be seen to reflect a “Creole” linguistic type.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Abbreviations and symbols ix
  5. Negation and negative concord 1
  6. Part 1. French related Creoles
  7. Sentential negation and negative words in Guadeloupean Creole 11
  8. What is negative in Haitian Creole? Negative Concord Items, sentential, constituent and expletive negation 33
  9. A lexicalist account of negation and negative concord in Mauritian 69
  10. Part 2. English related Creoles
  11. Negation in Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) 103
  12. Licensing negation and negative concord in Atlantic Creoles 125
  13. Negation in Singapore English 153
  14. Part 3. Portuguese related Creoles
  15. Negation in Cape Verdean Creole 173
  16. Elements of denial in Capeverdean 191
  17. Negation in Korlai Indo-Portuguese 211
  18. Negation and negative concord in Guinea-Bissau Kriyol (in comparison with Portuguese, substrate-adstrate languages and other Portuguese Creoles) 225
  19. Part 4. Other lexifier
  20. Negation in Palenquero 257
  21. Cross-linguistic negation contrasts in co-convergent contact languages 289
  22. Conclusions 313
  23. Index 325
https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.55.05yak

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Abbreviations and symbols ix
  5. Negation and negative concord 1
  6. Part 1. French related Creoles
  7. Sentential negation and negative words in Guadeloupean Creole 11
  8. What is negative in Haitian Creole? Negative Concord Items, sentential, constituent and expletive negation 33
  9. A lexicalist account of negation and negative concord in Mauritian 69
  10. Part 2. English related Creoles
  11. Negation in Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) 103
  12. Licensing negation and negative concord in Atlantic Creoles 125
  13. Negation in Singapore English 153
  14. Part 3. Portuguese related Creoles
  15. Negation in Cape Verdean Creole 173
  16. Elements of denial in Capeverdean 191
  17. Negation in Korlai Indo-Portuguese 211
  18. Negation and negative concord in Guinea-Bissau Kriyol (in comparison with Portuguese, substrate-adstrate languages and other Portuguese Creoles) 225
  19. Part 4. Other lexifier
  20. Negation in Palenquero 257
  21. Cross-linguistic negation contrasts in co-convergent contact languages 289
  22. Conclusions 313
  23. Index 325
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 17.2.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/coll.55.05yak/html
Scroll to top button