Home Linguistics & Semiotics Standard negation in Awa Pit: From synchrony to diachrony
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Standard negation in Awa Pit: From synchrony to diachrony

  • EMAIL logo and
Published/Copyright: November 12, 2019

Abstract

This study deals with clausal negation in Awa Pit, a Barbacoan language spoken in South America. By bringing together the data on negation from different varieties of the language, we present an analysis of synchronic patterns of negation marking. Based on the variation we suggest a number of innovations in the negation system, for which we put forward diachronic scenarios. Some innovations are likely to be contact-induced, whereas others are products of language-internal diachronic processes. The latter involve mechanisms associated with a classical ‘Jespersen Cycle’. However, Awa Pit offers us very non-classical Jespersen’s Cycles – at best. The case of Awa Pit is instructive as some of the scenarios that we suggest are likely to be relevant for other languages or languages families.

Abbreviations

1

1st person

2

2nd person

3

3rd person

acc

accusative

add

additive marker

bor

borrowing

col

collective

com

comitative

comp

completive aspect

con

connector

conj

conjunct

concess

concessive

constit

constituent

cop

copula

dcl

declarative

dir.obj

direct object

disj

disjunct

dl

distal

emph

emphatic

foc

focus

fut

future

gen

generic

ipfv

imperfective aspect

ipfvpart

imperfective participle

incep

inceptive aspect

inf

infinitive

inter

interrogative marker

intrz

intransitivizer

loc

locative

necess

necessitive mood

neg

negative

nmlz

nominalization

nom

nominative

non-verb.pred

non-verbal predicate

pers

person

pfvpart

perfective participle

pl

plural

pro

pronoun

prosp

prospective aspect marker

pst

past

q

question marker

rest

restrictive marker

rp

reportative

sg

singular

simult

simultaneous

sp

Spanish loan

subj

subject

top

topic marker

Acknowledgements

Our thanks are due to Martine Bruil and Simeon Floyd for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper, and to Pieter Muysken, Connie Dickinson and Geny Gonzales Castaño, all of whom have shared their knowledge on the Barbacoan languages with us. We are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and the editors for helping us improve the paper. The study has been carried out with the financial support of Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO).

References

Adelaar, Willem with the collaboration of Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486852Search in Google Scholar

Barbiers, Sjef, Johan van der Auwera, Hans Bennis, Eefje Boef, Gunther de Vogelaer & Margreet van der Ham. 2009. Syntactische atlas van de Nederlandse dialecten, Deel II (Syntactic atlas of the Dutch dialects, Vol. II). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.10.5117/9789053567791Search in Google Scholar

Bruil, Martine. 2017. Egoforicidad en Awa Pit. Handout of the presentation at Asociación de Lingüística y Filología de América Latina, Bogotá, 24–28 July 2017.Search in Google Scholar

Calvache Dueñas, Rocío. 1989. Fonología e introducción a la morfosintaxis del Awa Pit. Bogotá: Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de los Andes MA thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Calvache Dueñas, Rocı́o. 2000. Aproximación al Awa Pit. In Marı́a Stella González de Pérez & Marı́a Luisa Rodrı́guez de Montes (eds.), Lenguas indı́genas de Colombia: Una visión descriptiva. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.Search in Google Scholar

Campbell, Lyle. 2012. Typological characteristics of South American indigenous languages. In Lyle Campbell & Verónica Grondona (eds.), The indigenous languages of South America: A comprehensive guide, 259–330. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110258035.259Search in Google Scholar

Croft, William. 1991. The evolution of negation. Journal of Linguistics 27. 1–27.10.1017/S0022226700012391Search in Google Scholar

Curnow, Timothy. 1997. A grammar of Awa Pit (Cuaiquer): An indigenous language of south-western Colombia. Canberra: Australian National University Ph.D. dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Curnow, Timothy. 2002. Conjunct/disjunct marking in Awa Pit. Linguistics 40(3). 611–627.10.1515/ling.2002.025Search in Google Scholar

Curnow, Timothy. 2004–2005. La interrogación y la negación en Awa Pit. Amerindia 29/30. 219–234.Search in Google Scholar

Curnow, Timothy & Anthony Liddicoat. 1998. The Barbacoan languages of Colombia and Ecuador. Anthropological Linguistics 40. 384–408.Search in Google Scholar

Dahl, Östen. 1979. Typology of sentence negation. Linguistics 17. 79–106.10.1515/ling.1979.17.1-2.79Search in Google Scholar

Dahl, Östen. 2010. Typology of negation. In Laurence R. Horn (ed.), The expression of negation, 9–38. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110219302.9Search in Google Scholar

Devos, Maud & Johan van der Auwera. 2013. Jespersen cycles in Bantu: Double and triple negation. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 34. 205–274.10.1515/jall-2013-0008Search in Google Scholar

Dickinson, Connie. 2000. Mirativity in Tsafiki. Studies in Language 24(2). 379–421.10.1075/sl.24.2.06dicSearch in Google Scholar

Dickinson, Connie. 2002. Complex predicates in Tsafiki. Eugene: University of Oregon Ph.D. dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Dryer, Matthew. 2013. Order of negative morpheme and verb. In Matthew Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://wals.info/chapter/143 (accessed February 2016).Search in Google Scholar

Dryer, Matthew & Martin Haspelmath (eds.). 2013. The World Atlas of language structures online, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://wals.info.Search in Google Scholar

Epps, Patience. 2008. A grammar of Hup. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110199079Search in Google Scholar

Epps, Patience, John Huehnergard & Na’ama Pat-El. 2013. Introduction: Contact among genetically related languages. [Special issue]. Journal of Language Contact 6(2). 209–219.10.1163/19552629-00602001Search in Google Scholar

Fischer, Rafael & Kees Hengeveld. Forthcoming. A’ingae (Cofán/Kofán). In Patience Epps & Lev Michael (eds.), Amazonian languages, an international handbook. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Search in Google Scholar

Floyd, Simeon. 2010. Discourse forms and social categorization in Cha’palaa. Austin: University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

García, Pedro, Efrén Álvarez & Raúl Nastacuas. 2010. Awapit: Pĩnkĩh Kammu: Gramática pedagógica. (Colección Runakay, Serie Gramáticas.). Ecuador: Ministerio de Educación.Search in Google Scholar

Givón, Talmy. 2015. The diachrony of grammar, vol. 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/z.192Search in Google Scholar

Gómez Rendón, Jorge. 2010. Vitalidad de la lengua Awapit en las provincias de Carchi, Esmeraldas e Imbabura. Informe sociolingüístico del proyecto “Diagnóstico y documentación sociolingüística de la lengua Awapit en puntos focales de las provincias de Esmeraldas, Carchi e Imbabura”. Quito: Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural.Search in Google Scholar

Gonzales Castaño, Geny. 2014. Esquisse de description de la langue Nam Trik: Langue amerindienne parlée dans les Andes Colombiennes. Lyon: Université Lumière Lyon 2 MA thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Guillaume, Antoine. 2017. Towards a reconstruction of negation pattern in simplex and complex (coverb) constructions in Tacana (Amazonian Bolivia). Handout of the presentation at the Annual Conference of the Societas Lingusitic Europaea, Zürich, 10–13 September 2017.Search in Google Scholar

Guillaume, Antoine. Forthcoming. Multiple standard negation constructions in Tacana (Amazonian Bolivia): Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. In Ljuba Veselinova & Arja Hamari (eds.), The Negative Existential Cycle from a historical-comparative perspective. Berlin: Language Science Press.Search in Google Scholar

Güldemann, Tom. 2007. The Macro–Sudan belt: Towards identifying a linguistic area in northern sub-Saharan Africa. In Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds.), A linguistic geography of Africa, 151–185. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486272.006Search in Google Scholar

Hammarström, Harald, Robert Forkel & Martin Haspelmath. 2019. Glottolog, vol. 3, 4. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org (accessed 15 May 2019).Search in Google Scholar

Henriksen, Lee & Pedro Obando Ordóñez. 1985. Mane pinkih kamshimtus: Una gramática pedagógica del Cuaiquer con ejercicios prácticos, vol. 1. Pasto: Universidad de Nariño.Search in Google Scholar

Horn, Laurence R. 1989. A natural history of negation, 2nd edn, 2001. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Jäger, Andreas. 2013. ‘Do’-periphrasis as a cross-linguistic predicate focus strategy. Handout of the presentation at Association for Linguistic Typology 10th Biennial Conference, Leipzig, 15–18 August 2013.Search in Google Scholar

Jespersen, Otto. 1917. Negation in English and other languages. Kopenhagen: Høst.Search in Google Scholar

Klamer, Marian, Ger P. Reesink & Miriam van Staden. 2008. East Nusantara as a linguistic area. In Pieter Muysken (ed.), From linguistic areas to areal linguistics, 95–149. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.90.03klaSearch in Google Scholar

Krasnoukhova, Olga & Johan van der Auwera. 2018. Negation in the languages of the Eastern foothills: Towards some patterns and their explanations. Handout of the presentation at Coloquio Amazonicas-VII Ecuador, Baños, 28 May–1 June 2018.Search in Google Scholar

Krasnoukhova, Olga & Johan van der Auwera. under review. Negative ma in South America with a focus on its standard negative postverbal ma in Panoan, Takanan and Tukanoan. In Mily Crevels, Hein van der Voort & Matti Miestamo (eds.), Negation in Amazonian languages. [Studies in Diversity Linguistics series]. Berlin: Language Science Press.Search in Google Scholar

Levinsohn, Stephen. 1974. Una gramatica pedagógica del Inga. Colombia: Lingüístico de Verano, Ministerio de Gobierno.Search in Google Scholar

Meillet, Antoine. 1912. L’évolution des formes grammaticales. Scientia 12. 384–400. [Reprinted in Meillet, Antoine. 1926. Linguistique historique et linguistique générale, 130–148. Paris: H. Champion.].Search in Google Scholar

Michael, Lev. 2014. A typological and comparative perspective on negation in Arawak languages. In Lev Michael & Tania Granadillo (eds.), Negation in Arawak languages, 241–300. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004257023_012Search in Google Scholar

Miestamo, Matti. 2005. Standard negation. The negation of declarative verbal main clauses in a typological perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110197631Search in Google Scholar

Miestamo, Matti, Anne Tamm & Beata Wagner-Nagy. 2015. Negation in Uralic languages: Introduction. In Matti Miestamo, Anne Tamm & Beata Wagner-Nagy (eds.), Negation in Uralic languages, 1–41. (Typological Studies in Language 108). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.108Search in Google Scholar

Moore, Bruce. 1979. Método para aprender el idioma colorado (Gramática pedagógica: Tomo 1, lecciones 1 a 6). (Cuadernos Etnolingüísticos, 4.). Quito: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.Search in Google Scholar

Muysken, Pieter, Harald Hammarström, Joshua Birchall, Swintha Danielsen, Love Eriksen, Ana Vilacy Galucio, Rik van Gijn, Simon van de Kerke, Vishnupraya Kolipakam, Olga Krasnoukhova, Neele Müller & Loretta O’Connor. 2014. The languages of South America: Deep families, areal relationships, and language contact. In Loretta O’Connor & Pieter Muysken (eds.), The native languages of South America. Origins, development, typology, 299–322. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107360105.017Search in Google Scholar

Nedjalkov, Igor. 1994. Evenki. In Peter Kahrel & René van den Berg (eds.), Typological studies in negation, 1–34. (Typological Studies in Language 29.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.29.02nedSearch in Google Scholar

Neuckermans, Annemie. 2008. Negatie in de Vlaamse dialecten volgens de gegevens van de syntactische atlas van de Nederlandse dialecten (SAND). Ghent: University of Ghent Ph.D. dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Norde, Muriel. 2009. Degrammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207923.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Nordlinger, Rachel & Louisa Sadler. 2004. Nominal tense in cross-linguistic perspective. Language 80. 776–806.10.1353/lan.2004.0219Search in Google Scholar

Obando Ordóñez, Pedro. 1992. Awa-Kwaiker: An outline grammar of a Colombian/Ecuadorian language, with a cultural sketch. Austin: University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Osborn, Ann. 1969–1972. Alliance at ground level: The Kwaiker of southern Colombia. Revista de Antropología 17/20(2). 209–315.Search in Google Scholar

Pauwels, Jan. 1958. Het dialect van Aarschot en omstreken. [The dialect of Aarschot and the region.]. Brussel: Belgisch interuniversitair centrum voor Neerlandistiek.Search in Google Scholar

Payne, David L. 1990. Some widespread grammatical forms in South American languages. In Doris L. Payne (ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages, 75–87. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.Search in Google Scholar

Payne, John R. 1985. Negation. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description, vol. 1 ‘Clause structure’, 197–242. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Pineda-Bernuy, Edith. 2014. The development of standard negation in Quechua: A reconstruction. In Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen & Jacqueline Visconti (eds.), The diachrony of negation, 83–127. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.160.04pinSearch in Google Scholar

Reesink, Ger P. 2002. Clause-final negation, structure and interpretation. Functions of Language 9. 239–268.10.1075/fol.9.2.06reeSearch in Google Scholar

Rivet, Paul. 1941. Le groupe Kokonuko. Journal de la Société des Américanistes XXXIII. 1–61.10.3406/jsa.1941.3795Search in Google Scholar

Roberge, Paul. 2000. Etymological opacity, hybridization, and the Afrikaans brace negation. American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures 12. 101–176.10.1017/S1040820700002821Search in Google Scholar

San Roque, Lila, Simeon Floyd & Elisabeth Norcliffe. 2018. Egophoricity: An introduction. In Simeon Floyd, Elisabeth Norcliffe & Lila San Roque (eds.), Egophoricity, 1–78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [Typological Studies in Language, 118].10.1075/tsl.118Search in Google Scholar

Schwegler, Armin. 1991. Predicate negation in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese. Orbis 34. 187–214.10.2143/ORB.34.0.2013017Search in Google Scholar

Schwenter, Scott. 2006. Fine-tuning Jespersen cycle. In Betty Birner & Gregory Ward (eds.), Drawing the boundaries of meaning: Neo-Gricean studies in pragmatics and semantics in honor of Laurence R. Horn, 327–344. Amsterdam: Johan Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.80.19schSearch in Google Scholar

van der Auwera, Johan. 2006. Why languages prefer prohibitives. Journal of Foreign Languages 161(1). 2–25.Search in Google Scholar

van der Auwera, Johan. 2009. The Jespersen cycles. In Elly van Gelderen (ed.), Cyclical change, 35–71. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/la.146.05auwSearch in Google Scholar

van der Auwera, Johan & Frens Vossen. 2016. Jespersen cycles in the Mayan, Quechuan and Maipurean languages. In Elly van Gelderen (ed.), Cyclical change continued, 189–218. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/la.227.07auwSearch in Google Scholar

van der Auwera, Johan & Frens Vossen. 2017. Kiranti double negation: A copula conjecture. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 40. 40–58.10.1075/ltba.40.1.02vanSearch in Google Scholar

Vásquez de Ruiz, Beatriz. 1988. La predicación en guambiano. (Lenguas aborígenes de Colombia: Série Descripciones, 2.) Série Descripciones. Santafé de Bogotá: CCELA.Search in Google Scholar

Veselinova, Ljuba. 2014. The negative existential cycle revisited. Linguistics 52. 1327–1369.10.1515/ling-2014-0021Search in Google Scholar

Veselinova, Ljuba (with Hedvig Skirgård). 2015. Special negators in the Uralic languages. Synchrony, diachrony and interaction with standard negation. In Matti Miestamo, Anne Tamm & Beáta Wagner-Nagy (eds.), Negation in Uralic languages, 547–599. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.108.20vesSearch in Google Scholar

Vittadello, P. Alberto. 1988. Cha’palaachi: El idioma Cayapa. (Miscelánea Antropológica Ecuatoriana, Serie Monográfica 5, 102.). Guayaquil: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Sede de Esmeraldas, Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador.Search in Google Scholar

Vossen, Frens. 2016. Towards a typology of the Jespersen cycles. Antwerp: University of Antwerp Ph.D. dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2018-06-16
Revised: 2019-04-27
Revised: 2019-06-04
Accepted: 2019-06-07
Published Online: 2019-11-12
Published in Print: 2019-11-26

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 28.3.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/flih-2019-0017/html
Scroll to top button