polarity and existence - summary

[P}l Kristian Eriksen]

  Dear Colleagues.

    On the 17th of January I posted a request for information on languages
in which positive polarity operators appear in (unmarked) existential
sentences. On the 31th of January I posted an additional question, in which
I asked for information on languages in which positive and negative
existential sentences are expressed with two different existential items
(i.e. verbs, particles, etc..) - one for positive clauses and one for
negative. I recieved many answers, and I am very grateful to those who
sent them to me. Here follows a summary of the information I got:

    As far as the first question is concerned, Paul Hopper could inform me
that in Malay/Indonesian the particle "ada" is used both to affirm a
statement which has been denied previously, as well as to introduce an
existential NP. Roger Levy demonstrated that the same might be the case in
Mandarin Chinese, but with a slight restriction on the (re-)affirming
function: The Mandarin existential verb "you" can also be used to affirm a
previously denied statement, but only so in a perfect-type aspectual
context. Finally, Tom Güldemann informed me that in several Bantu
languages negative and positive polarity functions are expressed by
prefixes on the verb which seem likely to derive from predicative items
like "there is (not)" and "it is (not)". For more information on the
latter, see:

    Güldemann, Tom. 1999b. The genesis of Bantu negation and its
dependency on functional features of clause types. In Hombert, Jean-Marie
and Larry M. Hyman (eds.) "Bantu historical linguistics: theoretical and
empirical perspectives". CSLI Lecture Notes 99. Stanford: Center for
the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), 545-587.

    Güldemann, Tom. 1996. "Verbalmorphologie und Nebenprädikationen im
Bantu: Eine Studie zur funktional motivierten Genese eines konjugationalen
Subsystems". Bochum-Essener Beiträge zur Sprachwandelforschung 27. Bochum:
Universitätsverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer.

    Finally, it should be mentioned that Miren Lourdes Oinederra informed
me that the Basque examples I used in the original question might not be
accurate. The Basque data I used were obtained from other Basque
linguists, and the difference in acceptability might be due to dialect
differences, but in case I have misinterpreted the Basque data, that
misconception is my responsibility alone.

    As far as my second question on existential items is concerned,
William Croft gave me the reference to a paper he has written on the
evolution of systems of negation, and which contains a lot of relevant
data on this matter:

    Croft, William. 1991. The Evolution of Negation. Journal of
Linguistics 27.1-27.

    Claire Moyse-Faurie directed me to a book on negation in Oceanic
languages, where this phenomenon seems relatively widespread:

    Hovdhaugen, Even and Ulrike Mosel (eds.). 1999. Negation in Oceanic
Languages. Lincom Europa.

    Daniel Everett informed me that existential items in Piraha behaved
in a similar manner to the Turkish examples I used in the original
question, and he directed me to the first volume of the Handbook of
Amazonian Languages for more information on Piraha.

    Richard Valovics demonstrated how a phenomenon very much similar to
the one in Turkish is found both in Hungarian and Russian, but in both
languages only in the present tense, and in Hungarian it is furthermore
restricted to the third person only.

    Ljuba Veselinova sent me a file with examples from Wolaytta and
Ukrainian, and informed me that she has knowledge of similar examples from
languages like Songhay, Koyraboro, Chiini and Khasi, and that in these
latter languages the choice of expression seems not to be restricted by
tense, like in Turkish, Russian and Hungarian, but by mood.

    Silvia Kouwenberg gave me data of this phenomenon in the now extinct
Creole language Berbice Dutch, and gave me the following references:

     Kouwenberg, Silvia. 1994. Berbice Dutch. In Kahrel, Peter and René
van den Berg (eds.) "Typological Studies in Negation".
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 237-266.

     Kouwenberg, Silvia. 2000. Loss in Berbice Dutch Creole negative
constructions: An examination of competence and performance of the last
speakers. Linguistics 38(5), 889-923.

    Colin P. Mascia posted a mail on the list following Valovics' mail, in
which he listed and contrasted examples from the Dravidian languages
Tamil and Telugu.

    Michael Noonan informed me that the phenomenon exists in both
copular and existential verbs in the Tibeto-Burman languages Chantyal
and Nar-Phu. Papers (to appear in print) with grammatical data from both
these languages can be downloaded from his website:
http://www.uwm.edu/~noonan

    Finally, Paul Hopper posted a mail on the list with a reference to a
1972 paper by Charles Ferguson on the verb "to be" in Bengali (in vol 5 of
the series "The Verb 'BE' and its Synonyms", edited by John Verhaar), in
which Ferguson proposes some universals on the occurrence of the phenomenon.


    Once again, I thank all the people who took of their time to answer my
questions.


    Paal Kr. Eriksen