21.748, Qs: Languages with Negative Participles

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LINGUIST List: Vol-21-748. Fri Feb 12 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.748, Qs: Languages with Negative Participles

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1)
Date: 09-Feb-2010
From: Yvonne Treis < y.treis at latrobe.edu.au >
Subject: Languages with Negative Participles
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:32:38
From: Yvonne Treis [y.treis at latrobe.edu.au]
Subject: Languages with Negative Participles

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Dear colleagues,

Does anyone know of a language that has negative but no affirmative 
participles (verbal adjectives)? Or a language that has negative relative 
verbs with adjectival features but affirmative relative verbs without 
adjectival features?

I am working on Kambaata, a Cushitic language of Ethiopia. In this 
language, affirmative relative verbs have a purely verbal morphology, 
i.e. they agree with the subject of the relative clause (see 3F 
agreement with subject 'salt'), they are marked for aspect etc. 

(1)
[maxín-it    kot-táa]                     bun-á
salt-F.NOM   be_insufficient-3F.IPV.REL   coffee-M.ACC
'coffee in which the salt is insufficient'

However, when relative clauses are negated in Kambaata, a negative 
participle (glossed "NREL"), which combines verbal and adjectival 
morphology, has to be used. These negative participles agree with the 
subject of the relative clause (see 3F marking in ex. (2) and 3M 
marking in ex. (3)) but they also agree with the head noun in gender 
and case (see the final inflectional morpheme -ú M.ACC in ex. (2) and -
ut in ex. (3)).

(2)
[maxín-it     kot-tumb-ú]                  bun-á
salt-F.NOM  be_insufficient-3F.NREL-M.ACC  coffee-M.ACC
'coffee in which the salt is not insufficient (i.e. with enough salt)'

(3)
[bobír-u     qoh-úmb-ut]           úull-at
wind-M.NOM   damage-3M.NREL-F.NOM  land-F.NOM
'(a plot of) land which the wind has not damaged'

The negative relative verbs/participles are clearly verb-adjective 
hybrids; their argument structure is entirely verbal (they govern 
nominative subjects, all types of objects and adverbial constituents 
inside the relative clause) and they agree with their subject in 
person/gender/number (as any other verb in the language does) but 
they cannot be marked for aspect and, most importantly, they agree 
with the head noun that they modify in the same way as an adjective 
does in a Kambaata NP; see the case- and gender-agreeing adjectives 
in (4) and compare them with the case- and gender-agreeing negative 
relative verbs/particles in (2)-(3).

(4)
danaam-ú    bun-á
good-M.ACC  coffee-M.ACC
'good coffee' (accusative)

muccúr-ut    xénq-ut
clean-F.NOM  mug-F.NOM
'clean mug' (nominative)

I would appreciate any references to languages whose (relative) verbs 
acquire adjectival features when they are negated. I will post a 
summary to the list if replies warrant it. Thank you very much for your 
help.

Yvonne Treis
Email: y.treis at latrobe.edu.au
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University 

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology
                     Syntax
                     Typology




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