NEGATION IN MOKPE AND TWO RELATED COASTAL BANTU LANGUAGES OF CAMEROON

Abstract

Negation has recently constituted a fascinating area of study both in descriptive and theoretical linguistics because of the varying positions that the negative morpheme occupies in the world's languages and the need to determine the position of this morpheme at Deep Structure. In addition, while some languages employ a single negative morpheme ubiquitously, some others employ more than three morphemes, with the use of many of the morphemes predicated on the tense of the verb. This paper investigates the structure of negative constructions in Mokpe and two related coastal Bantu languages of Cameroon. Although Mokpe and these other languages employ two or more negative morphemes, these morphemes are not free variants; the use of any of them is constrained by the tense/aspect of the verb under consideration. A "Principles and Parameters Theory" treatment of negation in Mokpe is offered.