Overview

This volume deals with issues on negation patterns in languages of West Africa and the adjacent north and east. The first aim is to provide data on various aspects of negation in African languages. Although the topics addressed here reflect a great diversity of negation patterns, the following typological features have been identified to be prominent in our region: conflict or even incompatibility between negation and focus, use of other indirect means of negating non-indicative mood (covered under the term 'Prohibitive'), different negation patterns in different Tense-Aspect-Moods (e.g. Imperfective vs. Perfective), lack of negative indefinites, and disjunctive negative marking (often referred to as 'double negation'). The articles presented here show that areal factors have played a significant role in the development of negation strategies in the languages of West Africa and beyond. On the other hand genetic factors seem to be less prominent.

Full Product Details

Author:   Norbert Cyffer (University of Vienna) ,  Erwin Ebermann (University of Vienna) ,  Georg Ziegelmeyer (University of Vienna)
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   87
Weight:   0.830kg
ISBN:  

9789027206688

ISBN 10:   9027206686
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   27 August 2009
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction (by Cyffer, Norbert); 2. Negation of non-indicative mood in Hausa, Fulfulde and Kanuri (by Ziegelmeyer, Georg); 3. The impact of clause types and focus control, aspect, modality, and referentiality on negation in Lamang and Hdi (Central Chadic) (by Wolff, H. Ekkehard); 4. Quantification and polarity: Negative Adverbial Intensifiers ('never ever', 'not at all', etc.) in Hausa (by Jaggar, Philip J.); 5. Negation patterns in Kanuri (by Cyffer, Norbert); 6. Songhay verbal negation in its dialectal and areal context (by Zima, Petr); 7. Negation in Jukun (by Storch, Anne); 8. Negation marking in Igbo (by Ndimele, Ozo-mekuri); 9. Aspects of discontinuous negation in Santome (by Hagemeijer, Tjerk); 10. Negation in Gur: Genetic, areal and unique features (by Winkelmann, Kerstin); 11. Double negation-marking: A case of contact-induced grammaticalization in West Africa? (by Beyer, Klaus); 12. Negation in South Mande (by Vydrine, Valentin); 13. From double negation to portmanteau: Comparative sentence negation in Northern Samo (by Ebermann, Erwin); 14. The system of negation in Berber (by Mettouchi, Amina); 15. Verb-object-negative order in central Africa (by Dryer, Matthew S.); 16. Language index; 17. Name index; 18. Subject index

Reviews

This volume constitutes an important contribution to African linguistics which will contribute to a better understanding of negation in other African languages and also to the treatment of areal features. -- Helga Pasch, University of Cologne, in Afrikanistik Online 2010

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