Personeelslijst
Maud Devos
Culturele Antropologie & geschiedenis
Cultuur & Maatschappij
Cultuur & Maatschappij
Beschrijving
Bernander, R., Devos, M. & Gibson, H. 2022. ‘The negative existential cycle in Bantu’. In: Ljuba Veselinova, Arja Hamari (eds), The Negative Existential Cycle. Series ‘Research On Comparative Grammar’. Berlin : Language Science Press, pp. 59-113. (PR) DOI: DOI: 10.5281/ zenodo.7353601.
Chapter in an edited book / Article in an edited book
Renewal of negation has received ample study in Bantu languages. Still, the relevant literature does not mention a cross-linguistically recurrent source of standard
negation, i.e., the existential negator. The present paper aims to find out whether
this gap in the literature is indicative of the absence of the Negative Existential Cycle (NEC) in Bantu languages. It presents a first account of the expression of negative existence in a geographically diverse sample of 93 Bantu languages. Bantu
negative existential constructions are shown to display a high degree of formal
variation within both dedicated and non-dedicated constructions. Although such
variation is indicative of change, existential negators do not tend to induce changes
at the same level as standard negation. The only clear cases of the spread of an existential negator to the domain of standard negation in this study appear to be prompted by sustained language contact.