Standard Negation: The Negation of Declarative Verbal Main Clauses in a Typological Perspective

Matti Miestamo

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2005

Standard Negation

The Negation of Declarative Verbal Main Clauses in a Typological Perspective

Matti Miestamo

Volume 31 in the series Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197631

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book is the first cross-linguistic study of clausal negation based on an extensive and systematic language sample. Methodological issues, especially sampling, are discussed at length. Standard negation – the basic structural means languages have for negating declarative verbal main clauses – is typologized from a new perspective, paying attention to structural differences between affirmatives and negatives. In symmetric negation affirmative and negative structures show no differences except for the presence of the negative marker(s), whereas in asymmetric negation there are further structural differences, i.e. asymmetries. A distinction is made between constructional and paradigmatic asymmetry; in the former the addition of the negative marker(s) is accompanied by further structural differences in comparison to the corresponding affirmative, and in the latter the correspondences between the members of (verbal etc.) paradigms used in affirmatives and negatives are not one-to-one. Cross-cutting the constructional-paradigmatic distinction, asymmetric negation can be further divided into subtypes according to the nature of the asymmetry. Standard negation structures found in the 297 sample languages are exemplified and discussed in detail. The frequencies of the different types and some typological correlations are also examined. Functional motivations are proposed for the structural types – symmetric negatives are language-internally analogous to the linguistic structure of the affirmative and asymmetric negatives are language-externally analogous to different asymmetries between affirmation and negation on the functional level. Relevant diachronic issues are also discussed. The book is of interest to language typologists, descriptive linguists and to all linguists interested in negation.

Author / Editor information

Matti Miestamo works at the Department of General Linguistics, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Reviews

"The volume under review is obligatory reading for anyone interested in language typology and in recent trends in the field."
Angela Bartens in: SKY Journal of Linguistics 20/2007

"This innovative and important study shows that the ways languages negate statements is as important -- and diverse -- as the ways they make statements."
Nathan Bierma in: Chicago Tribune, Dezember 2006

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Chapter 1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 2 Theoretical and methodological issues Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Chapter 3 Classification Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
Chapter 4 Quantitative data Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Chapter 5 Functional motivations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Chapter 6 Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Libraries; Teachers and Advanced Students of Linguistics.
Pages
- Front matter: 13
- Main content: 490
Keywords: Negation; Language Typology

eBook

Published: August 22, 2008
ISBN: 9783110197631

Hardcover

Published: December 15, 2005
ISBN: 9783110185799