Abstract
Crosslinguistically, negatives change in a cyclical fashion. A particular negative weakens and is renewed by another element. In this article, I provide examples of two distinct negative cycles, one using an indefinite phrase and the other a verbal head as renewal. The examples are taken from Indo-European, Uralic, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit, Haida, Afro-Asiatic, and Chinese. I also provide an account of both cycles using phrase structures and economy principles as in generative grammar.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 195-243 |
| Number of pages | 49 |
| Journal | Linguistic Typology |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- Economy
- Grammaticalization
- Indefinite
- Linguistic cycle
- Negation
- Negative concord
- Negative verbs
- Syntax
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language