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<small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana"><small>(<i>sorry this is
going to be a bit long</i>)</small><br>
<br>
Dear all,<br>
<br>
</font></small><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">Let me
mention here the situation in a few Oceanic languages from north
Vanuatu & eastern Solomons. </font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"><small><br>
[</small></font></small><font face="Verdana"><small><font
color="#000000"><small>See my page <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://alex.francois.free.fr/AF-field.htm">http://alex.francois.free.fr/AF-field.htm</a>
for a list and a map of these languages]</small></font></small></font><br>
<font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000"><small><br>
</small></font></small></font>
<div align="right"></div>
<small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">YES and NO work as follows.
<br>
Basically, we get a twofold strategy similar to that mentioned for
Caucasus languages by Michael Daniel and Stephen Hewitt: that is, the
equivalent of YES and NO take both the form of a</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">
"vocal gesture" (if this is the right term)</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"> and of lexical material [see below]. </font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">There are
also facial gestures, which I won't describe here, but which of course
are worth of mention.</font></small><br>
<small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana"><br>
</font></small>
<ul>
<li><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">In the affirmative,
you generally combine the gesture with</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"> the
sentence repeated, <br>
something like <i>Did you go there? -- Mmm! I
went there.</i> In this case, I guess we would say that the equivalent
of YES is the vocal gesture</font></small><small><font color="#000000"
face="Verdana"> (although this may be discussed).<br>
<br>
</font></small></li>
<li><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">Things are less
clearcut for NO, since we get both the gesture and a specific
single-word sentence used for negative statements. </font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">Both strategies (gestural and lexical)
are used in similar contexts for similar purposes [though there are
slight pragmatic nuances, which I won't detail here]. <br>
When they are combined, which is often the case, the gestural NO comes
first and the lexical second: see in the Lemerig example below “</font><b>Óòó,
niv!</b></small><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">”.
Incidentally, it would be interesting to check if this is always the
case in other languages (gestural NO comes before lexical NO).<br>
We may compare this twofold NO-sentence with a sequence “<b>Unhun, no</b>!”
in English, thus suggesting that the equivalent to NO is really /</font></small><small><b>niv</b></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">/; but we might as well point to the
English sequence “<b>No, I didn't</b>” -- thus suggesting /</font></small><small><b>Óòó</b></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">/ = NO and </font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">/</font></small><small><b>niv</b></small>/<small><font
color="#000000"> <font face="Verdana">= “I didn't” (and I agree with
Michael that the latter construction can be regarded as one of English
'NO's). </font></font></small><br>
</li>
</ul>
<small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">Unless we come up with a
stricter definition of what should be understood as "<i>equivalents to
YES and NO</i>", I see no strong reason for deciding which one is the
exact equivalent of English NO. </font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">So let's consider for the moment that
both /</font></small><small><b>Óòó</b></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">/ and /</font></small><small><b>niv</b></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">/ equally constitute equivalents to NO,
as they both can form (whether separately or combined) a well-formed
utterance showing the speaker's disagreement with the content of a
preceding question / claim / presupposed proposition, etc.<br>
<br>
</font></small><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana"><br>
</font></small>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">Now,
if we get back to the Oceanic forms:<br>
<br>
1. The vocal gesture normally takes the form of a vowel</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"> with a specific pitch contour. [no
clicks]. <br>
The vowel is /<b>o</b>/ in 17 languages, and schwa in the two languages</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"> (Lo-Toga and Hiw)</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"> that possess schwa in their vowel
inventory.</font></small><br>
<ul>
<li><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">YES will be a
slightly elongated, though monosyllabic vowel, with a
falling prosodic contour of the type 4>1*</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"> -- this roughly sounds the same as
the fourth tone of Mandarin Chinese</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">.</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"> <br>
Taking a tonal analogy, one may transcribe this as [<b>ô:</b>]</font></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">.</font></small></li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana"> (*I'm using
here intuitively a scale from 1 = extra-low to 5 =
extra-high. Note that none of
these languages is tonal.)</font></small></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">Its negative
counterpart takes the form of a longer vowel, following a
three-syllable pitch contour: a high plateau
followed by a low one and then a final rise: something like 4+1+3. <br>
Taking a tonal analogy, one may roughly transcribe this as [</font></small><b><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">ó</font></small></b><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana"><b>.ò.ó</b>]. In the examples below, It
will appear as /</font></small><small><b>Óòó</b></small><small><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana">/.<br>
</font></small></li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana"><br>
</font></small></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">2. As for the lexical
equivalent to our NO: </font></small><br>
<blockquote><small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">In all the
languages of the area, the lexical form 'No' is the same
form as the negative existential predicate (henceforth <b>NegExist</b>)
-- Engl. '<i>There isn't</i> [+Noun]'
(or if the subject is anaphoric, '<i>There's none</i>'.)</font></small><br>
<small><font color="#000000" face="Verdana">Thus compare, for a
language called Lemerig (3 speakers, Vanua Lava):</font></small><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><b>N-pé <u>niv</u>. ~ <u>Niv</u>
pé.<br>
</b><b><small>Art-water NegExist. </small></b><b><small>NegExist
water</small></b><br>
<small>'There is no water.'</small><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><b>N-pé pän? -- Óòó, (<i>n-pé</i>)
<u>niv</u>.<br>
<small>Art-water Exist (no) (</small></b><b><small><i>Art-water</i>)
</small></b><b><small> NegExist<br>
</small></b><small>'Is there any water? -- No, there
isn't any.'</small><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><b>Näk m-van 'i lé wongon? --
Óòó, <u>niv</u>.<br>
<small>2sg Preter1-go Pret2 Locative beach
(no) NegExist<br>
</small></b><small>'Did you go to the beach? -- No, I didn't.'</small><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Note the
perfect parallels in Bislama </font><font color="#000000">(</font><font
color="#000000">the English-lexifier pidgin of Vanuatu), with <i>Nogat</i>
[<Eng. <i>no + got</i> 'have not']:</font></small></font><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><b>Wora i <u>nogat</u></b><b>.
~ (I) <u>nogat</u> wora.</b><b><br>
<small>water Pred NegExist. Pred
NegExist water<br>
</small></b><small>'There is no water.'</small><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><b>Wora i gat? -- </b><b>Óòó, </b><b>
(wora) i <u>nogat</u>.<br>
</b><b><small>water Pred Exist (no) (</small></b><b><small><i>water</i>)
</small></b><b><small>Pred NegExist</small></b><br>
<small>'Is there any water? -- No, there isn't any.'</small><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><b>Yu bin go long sanbij? --
Óòó, </b>(*i)<b>
<u>nogat</u>.<br>
<small>2sg Preter go Locative beach
(no) </small></b><small>(*Pred)</small><b><small> NegExist<br>
</small></b><small>'Did you go to the beach? -- No, I didn't.'</small><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000"> In Solomon
Pijin, the form is</font><font color="#000000"> <i>Nomoa</i>
[<Eng. <i>no + more</i> 'not any more'].</font></small></font><br>
<font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000"><br>
Almost all of the Oceanic languages on which I have first-hand data
behave the same. In a way, they
illustrate your query, since they have a NO form that has its own
meaning and syntax, apart from being a sentential word.<br>
However, in almost all these languages, you can't really say that the
NO word is morphologically complex, since it consists essentially of a
single morpheme (glossed here NegExist): e.g. </font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Teanu <i><b>tae</b></i>,
Tanema <i><b>eia</b></i>, </font></small></font><font face="Verdana"><small><font
color="#000000">Hiw <b><i>tego</i></b>, </font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Mwotlap <i><b>tateh</b></i></font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">, Lemerig <b><i>niv</i></b></font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">, Vurës <b><i>odiang</i></b></font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">, Vera'a <i><b>gitag</b></i></font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">, </font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Mwesen <b><i>eneng</i></b>,
</font></small></font><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Mota
<i><b>tagai</b></i>,
</font></small></font><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Nume/</font></small></font><font
face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Dorig/Koro <i><b>bek</b></i>,
</font></small></font><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">Mwerlap
<b><i>tégé</i></b>…<br>
<br>
In two languages, Olrat and Lakon, the word is morphologically
analysable as prefixed with a Stative aspect: <i><b>ga iv</b></i>
/Stative/NegExist/.<br>
</font></small></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
<br>
</font></font><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">3. More
interestingly, two
languages (other than Bislama and Pijin mentioned earlier) show a
morphologically complex form for 'No':</font></small></font><br>
<ul>
<li><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">In Araki, 'No
= NegExist' is <i><b>mo ce re</b></i>, analysable as /mo/ '3rd.pers.
Realis' + /ce/ 'Negation' + /re/ 'Partitive' = '<i>not any</i>'.<br>
</font></small></font></li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><small><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">[see
p.65 of: </font></small></font><font face="Verdana"><small><font
color="#000000">François,
Alexandre. 2002. <i>Araki: A disappearing language of Vanuatu.</i>
Pacific
Linguistics, 522. Canberra: Australian National University.]</font></small></font></small>
<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><font face="Verdana"><small><font color="#000000">In Lo-Toga,
'No' is <i><b>tate-gë</b></i>, analysable as /tate/ 'NegExist' + /gë/
'thing' = '<i>there is nothing</i>'.<br>
<br>
</font></small></font></li>
</ul>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><font face="Verdana"><small><font
color="#000000"><br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
Alex.</font></small></font><br>
<br>
<hr size="2" width="100%">
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72"><small>Alex François
LACITO - CNRS
7 rue Guy Môquet
F - 94801 Villejuif
FRANCE
email <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Alexandre.Francois@vjf.cnrs.fr">Alexandre.Francois@vjf.cnrs.fr</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://alex.francois.free.fr">http://alex.francois.free.fr</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr">http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr</a></small></pre>
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