Jespersen cycles in Bantu

Double and Triple Negation

Bibliographic Data

ID5818059
AuthorsMaud Devos (Royal Museum for Central Africa, corresponding author), Johan Van Der Van Der Auwera (0000-0001-9222-2994, University of Antwerp)
Year2013
Volume34
Issue2
Publication date2013-01-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Languages and Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-6164 • E-ISSN: 1613-3811
PublisherDe Gruyter Mouton (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/jall-2013-0008
OpenAlexW1993446000
LanguageEN
Citations received67

This paper gives an overview of post-verbal negative marking in Bantu languages. It shows that, although Bantu studies tend to concentrate on negation marked on the verb itself, post-verbal negative markers are well represented within the Bantu domain and high concentrations can be found in zones B, C, H and L. It is argued that locative pronouns, possessive pronouns and negative (answer) particles are recurrent sources of negative markers in Bantu languages. It is claimed that they take part in what is generally known as a Jespersen cycle: they initially reinforce the original negator and eventually become obligatory for the expression of negation resulting in a double negative construction. It will be shown that in Bantu languages a new Jespersen cycle can set in before the original negator has been lost, yielding triple negative constructions, which are much more rarely attested world-wide

Bantu languages · Locative case · Negation · Possessive · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and Language Studies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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