[Lingtyp] Negation marks adverbial clauses

[Seino van Breugel]

Hi All,

In Atong (A Tibeto-Burman/Sino-Tibetan language, as spoken in Northeast
India), there is a postposition <*dabat>* which limits an event in time,
and can thus be translated as 'since' or 'until'. I am not sure if this
word is analysable to (all) Atong speakers, but it's internal makeup is the
prohibitive morpheme <da> followed by the verbal root <bat> 'cross'. It's
literal meaning would  be 'don't cross!'. This is an example of something
that was at least historically negative, but, as far as I can tell,
synchronically just a temporal specifier. Example (1) illustrates its use.

Example (1).

*nang•*

*kheng*

*=wa*

*dabat*

*ang*

*thyi*

*=cha*

*dabat*

2sg

be.alive

=acc

*limit*

1sg

die

=neg

*limit*



*ang*

*=aw*

*mu•*

*=ai*

*sa•*

*=na*

*hyn•*

*=bo”*

*no*

*=ok*

*=no.*

1sg

=acc

keep

=adv

eat

=goal

give

=imp

say

=cos

=quot

 ‘keep giving me and my wife to eat, for as long as you live, until I die’

 Literally something like: 'don't cross my life, don't cross my not dying'.


Then there is what I called the *expletive negative *in Atong, as in
example (2). Here, the negative =*cha* really does not express negation,
but works with the event specifier suffix *-tharap* (as soon as) to specify
the time of the event *dong**•* 'arrive'.


Example (2).

*dong•*

*-ang*

*-tharap*

*=cha*

*=an*

*kyryi*

*=wa*

*ganang*

arrive

-away

-as.soon.as

*=neg*

=foc

be.afraid

=fact

exist

 ‘as soon as [he] arrived, [he] was afraid’



In conclusion, it seems that in Atong, negative morphemes, historically and
synchronically, can be used in certain constructions to help with the
temporal specification of events.


Best,


Seino

_________________
Dr. Seino van Breugel
Assistant Professor
University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, The Netherlands

On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 9:55 AM Françoise Rose <francoise.rose at univ-lyon2.fr>
wrote:

> Dear Mohammad,
>
> this is a very common phenomenon in (rather formal) French:
>
>
>
> avant qu’elle n’arrive, ….
>
> before she arrives (lit. before she does not arrive)
>
>
>
> Unfortunately, I don’t have any reading recommendation on the topic!
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Françoise ROSE (fʁɑ̃swɑz ʁoz)
>
> Directrice de Recherches 2ème classe, CNRS
>
> Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage (CNRS/Université Lyon2)
>
> 16 avenue Berthelot
>
> 69007 Lyon
>
> FRANCE
>
> www.ddl.cnrs.fr/ROSE
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *De :* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *De la part de*
> mohammad rasekh
> *Envoyé :* mardi 11 janvier 2022 16:18
> *À :* LINGTYP LINGTYP <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Cc :* Fariba Sabouri <faribasabouri at gmail.com>
> *Objet :* [Lingtyp] Negation marks adverbial clauses
>
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> I hope you have started a happy new year.
>
> In the corpus of one of my students in Hamedani Persian (a variety spoken
> in Hamedan, west of Iran), we have found some adverbial clauses in which
> the verb is marked by negative prefix, but it does not mean negative. These
> adverbial clauses mark Time (meaning 'as soon as') and Reason, or both at
> the same time. Some examples:
>
>
>
> 1.        *i               ke            kur          na**-šod**, man
>         diye          ruz-e xoš                 na-didam*
>
>         he            that         blind       NEG-become, I    anymore
> day-EZ happy     NEG-see-1SG
>
>         As soon as he got blind, I had no good times.
>
> 2.      *das       ke         ne-mi-ke**š**-i**
>                         ru har**č**i,                       x**ā**k-e*
>
>        hand     that      NEG-IND-touch-2SG               over
> everything,       dirty-BE.3SG
>
>     As you touch everything, it is dirty.
>
> I wonder if there is any other language in which the adverbial clause is
> negative in form but not in meaning. I searched to find some evidence or
> some sources which mention this, but I was not successful. I appreciate
> your comments.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mohammad
>
>
>
> Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand
>
> Linguistics Department,
>
> Bu-Ali Sina University,
>
> Hamedan, Iran.
>
> Postal Code: 6517838695
>
> https://basu.academia.edu/MohammadRasekhmahand
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>
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