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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">(same
message as previously, with the"object" this time)</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Dear
all,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Investigating
into some possible connection between negation and nasality is an exciting
prospect but I wish to be sure I fully understand the question and its limits.
In a few words:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><SPAN
style="mso-list: Ignore">1)<SPAN
style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">supposing
that at some semantic, cognitive level or whatever there is any such thing like
“negation”, does it universally call for nasal marking? <BR>NO. Counter-examples
are no doubt infinitely more abundant than matches.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><SPAN
style="mso-list: Ignore">2)<SPAN
style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">supposing
that in a given language N can be analyzed as a “unified morpheme” with a core
value, is it necessarily a negative one? <BR>NO. In Basque –n is used for
forming the inessive and the genitive of NPs and the past and the 2<SUP>nd</SUP>
person singular feminine in the agglutinative conjugation; and the negative
marker is “ez”. So one might wonder if the uses of –n are interconnected but
certainly not how they relate with negation, unless I’m missing
something.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><SPAN
style="mso-list: Ignore">3)<SPAN
style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">supposing
that in a given language we find nasal markers connected with negation such as
<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">not</I> in English, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">nu</I> in Georgian, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">na(i) </I>in Japanese (+ <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">arimasen</I>) and <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">nngit</I> in inuktitut, it seems necessary
to determine whether the nasal element is a candidate in the first place. It is
so in IE languages both because in synchrony the marker is sufficiently
widespread to be undeniably attested (on distributional grounds) and because
diachrony the same group has been stubbornly consistent in preserving the “nasal
connection” of negativity in spite of phonological change – so that diachrony
justifies the origin (this is perfectly tautological) but does not explain why
the connection is still alive and kicking (the linguist). In other cases whether
nasality is a candidate at all as a negative marker is to be explored. In
Georgian is <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">nu</I> an isolated case:
other occurrences of negative N? If not I am reluctant to admit it as a match.
The case of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">nngit</I> is to be
investigated. That of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">na(i) </I>and <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">arimasen</I> are more promising but not
conclusive at this early stage.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><SPAN
style="mso-list: Ignore">4)<SPAN
style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Admitting
that nasality may be connected with negation this raises other questions: what
about other cases like possible connections between dental consonants and the
past or the accomplished (apart from IE languages, Japanese <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">ta</I>, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">to</I>, possibly <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">te</I>), vowel alternations (Georgian: <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">u- / i- / a</I>- as<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>verbal prefixes; wolof: noun classifier
+ I (proximal), A (distal), U (undetermined + lexical post-determiner). In other
words: if N in Georgian should eventually be accepted as negative, would this
raise the question of –u in nu, its connections with other occurrences of u in
the same language, therefore a compositional analysis of morphemes…</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><SPAN
style="mso-list: Ignore">5)<SPAN
style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">If
the nasal connection is validated in some cases at least; what would it
mean?<BR>How is the motivation, if any, oriented: from intended meaning to the
selection of sound, or from the construal of meaning out of the sounds’
proprioceptive properties ? And which ones? (multimodality: essential visual,
auditory and tactile properties) And how are they distributed in the environment
and between the interlocutors? for ex: I / a = proximal / distal if one relies
on tactile iconicity (closed / opened) and absolute auditory iconicity (Doppler
effect: treble / bass) but in terms of relative auditory iconicity I can be
dissociative and A associative (A = “echoing effect” = will be responded by
perceivable harmonics in confined environments while /i/ will not. I tested this
with my daughter in a cave: all tourists present tested the echo with loud /a/s;
just for fun I tested a shrill /i:/, with no success at all, “why does it not
work with <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">me</I>? Is there a power cut or
something?” and everybody burst out laughing, including those who did not speak
French, because they had this intuitive knowledge (acquired through experience)
of the interactional properties of sounds on the environment – sounds may not
have actual meaning but they are not “cognitively neutral” and I suspect that
the root of motivation (not determination), when motivation does happen, is to
be found in this kind of phenomenon.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Many
linguists are reluctant to raise questions like that of the “nasal connection”
because we have a feeling that if we open Pandora’s box all hell is going to
break out loose, iconicity, phonosymbolism, cratylian motivation and all that. I
wish the current discussions were the opportunity to reconsider those questions
methodically – actually make the problematics explicit and elaborate scientific
protocols to establish the data in the first place since even “what is data” in
this domain cannot be taken for granted; at least we’d know wheter ther is a
question at all since obviously there is reason to doubt
it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">This
might also be an opportunity to bridge a gap between typology and theories which
raise serious questions (cognition, embodiment, distribution, intersubjectivity,
language formation and acquisition) but from other disciplines’s standpoints and
without the linguistic data required to be accurate and avoid postulating
universals that ignore diversity.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Best
regards<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><st1:PersonName
ProductID="Didier Bottineau" w:st="on"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Didier
Bottineau</SPAN></st1:PersonName><SPAN
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">CNRS, UMR 7114 MoDyCo
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Université Paris 10,
Bât. L, R12D<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">200 avenue de la
République<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">92001
NANTERRE<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">01 40 97 40
72<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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