query: grammaticalization go/be.in > negation

[Jeroen Wiedenhof]

Dear David,

I am not sure if this is relevant to your question, i.e. how broad you 
intend to take the "negative concept involving the disappearance or 
absence".

In Dutch, the verb for 'die' is doodgaan, literally 'go dead'. It is 
casual (compared to the formal word sterven) but not impolite. Less 
respectful variants with gaan 'go' include de pijp uitgaan,  kassiewijle 
gaan, for 'kick the bucket'.

Gaan 'go' can also be prefixed to express disappearance, some more 
negative than others:

- with heen 'away': heengaan 'be gone, pass away'

- with uit 'out, off': uitgaan 'break up' (intransitive), of a romance, 
a meeting, a day at school, 'go out' of a lamp;

- with weg 'way': weggaan 'go away';

- with teloor- 'forlorn' (appearing only with forms of gaan): teloorgaan 
'be lost forever'.

Since you mention motion and location, both are present in the verb 
raken: transitive 'touch' (the floor), intransitive 'get to be, come 
into a state of' (e.g. geëmotioneerd raken 'be moved emotionally').

Raken can be prefixed with directional morphemes in much the same way as 
gaan 'go', but it presents the disappearing act as a process:

- with uit: 'out, off': uit raken 'die off, peter out, die down', of a 
romance, a fashion style, a burning candle;

- with weg 'way': weg raken 'become lost, (gradually) disappear';

- with op 'up, gone': opraken 'run out, run short' of resources.

You mention negative imperatives. Like raken, the verb scheren 'shave, 
skim' combines motion and location; with weg 'way', it forms a reflexive 
verb which occurs mainly as an imperative: Scheer je weg! (stilted, 
hence jocular) 'Be gone!, Get going!'.

Imperatives with the auxiliary gaan 'go' also have negative associations 
in expressions such as Ga toch fietsen! 'Just go ride your bike!', Ga 
toch weg! 'Just go away!', Ga toch vissen! 'Just go fishing!', all of 
which can be used in the sense of 'Get out of here!', i.e. literally as 
well as figuratively 'No way!', 'Impossible!'.

As a double auxiliary, zijn gaan 'be gone to' occurs ironically, e.g. ze 
zijn zeker gaan vissen 'they must have gone fishing', hij was gaan 
pissen 'he was gone to take a piss' to indicate that someone has somehow 
disappeared.

Other motion-and-location auxiliaries, mainly in spoken usage:
- zijn wezen 'have been' to denote disappearance and reappearance: ze 
zijn wezen schaatsen 'they are back from going out to skate';
- zijn 'be' > 'be gone to': ze zijn tennissen 'they are away playing 
tennis'.

These last two carry little negativity, but 'be > be gone to' is also 
used in jest (and in rhyme) in the saying Als ze me missen, dan ben ik 
pissen! 'If they miss me, I have gone out to take a piss!' to convey 
that the reason of my disappearance or absence is none of their 
business. Also less offensively with vissen etc. 
<http://tinyurl.com/asulfgj>

All examples represent Dutch from the Randstad area and beyond. I have 
used dictionary spelling, but there is much variation between <uitgaan> 
and <uit gaan>, etc.

Best regards,

Jeroen


Universiteit Leiden, LIAS / LUCL
Sinologisch Instituut

- - -

<David Gil> schreef op 31/01/13 05:29:
> Dear all,
>
> In English motherese, the expression 'allgone' is often used to express
> a negative concept involving the disappearance or absence of an entity
> previously present.
>
> I am interested in ascertaining how common or rare it is,
> cross-linguistically, for a verb of motion (eg. 'go') or location (eg.
> 'be in') to undergo extension of meaning, or grammaticalization, to
> express various negative concepts, as in the above 'allgone' example.
>
> The reason behind this query is as follows.  In Roon (an Austronesian
> language of West Papua), the same verb has a range of meanings which
> includes 'be in' and 'disappear'.  (The logic behind this would seem to
> be that if something goes or is located somewhere else, then it is no
> longer here.)   In addition, the stem on which this verb is based is
> also used to form negative imperatives.  I am currently trying to figure
> out whether to analyze this in terms of macrofunctionality, polysemy, or
> accidental homophony, so whether similar patterns are attested
> cross-linguistically would be of relevance to the choice of analysis.
>
> Looking forward to any responses,
>
> David
>