Negation in the Sino-Tibetan Context --A Brief Introduction--

Abstract

This paper is a brief overview of the typological features of negation in the Sino-Tibetan (ST) languages (with two branches, Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman languages), utilizing the data of many previous descriptive works and data I gathered by myself. This paper discusses the features of phonology, word order, tense/aspect, morphology, syntax/semantics, and illocutionary acts. Phonologically, Sinitic languages usually have plosive and nasal onsets for negative morphemes, while Tibeto-Burman (TB) languages mostly have negative forms derived from Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) *ma-. Most Sinitic and TB languages are of the preverbal negation type, whereas postverbal negation type can be found in Northeast India and Bangladesh, the double type (cooccurring preverbal and postverbal negatives) can be found in Nepal and in Karenic languages. Some Sinitic and TB languages employ different forms for tense/aspect distinctions that show suppletion or vowel alternation, whereas Burmese “tense” distinctions are neutralized in negation. Many TB negative morphemes are morphologically clitics or affixes. The negative markers in some ST languages are fused with the copula, auxiliary verbs, or aspectual markers. As for semantic features, some languages with negative-polarity items, such as Mandarin and Duhumbi, have a structural “double negative, ” which is construed as single negation. Many ST languages mostly have prohibitive forms derived from PTB *ta ⪤ *da, while some languages, such as Burmese, utilize concordance with a sentence-final marker to represent the prohibitive.