Negación e Irrealis: Nivacle

VIDAL, ALEJANDRA

Leticia

Congreso; Amazonicas VI. Simposio sobre sintaxis: la negación en lenguas amazónicas.; 2016

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, I aim to analyze different negative constructions in Nivaĉle (Mataguayan), a polysynthetic language spoken in northeastern Argentina and central Paraguay (Chaco region). The analysis adopts a cross-linguistic, typological perspective (Miestamo 2005, Hahrel & Van der Berg 1994, Miestamo et al. 2015, inter alia). Different patterns of negation with respect to morphology and syntax are characteristic of verbal vs. non-verbal predicates and declarative vs. non-declarative clauses, which is why a discussion on this structural asymmetry will be included. On the one hand, standard negation of declarative verbal clauses and phrases is represented by the addition of the discontinuous /ni …’a/, irrespective of the lexical category (whether a noun, verb, or demonstrative) or the semantic verb class. On the other hand, non-declarative clauses (prohibitive, hypothetical and counter-factual uses) require the presence of special markers, yaj and tanca as adverbial modifiers. Also, non-verbal predicates (negative existential) take a dedicated copula, (Payne, Vidal & Otero 2018).There is, therefore, structural variation in the marking of negation depending on the clause type.Secondly, negative polarity has been associated with the Irrealis mood in several Amazonian languages of the Southern Arawak branch (Danielsen & Terhart 2015), spoken in the vicinity of the Chaco region. In those languages negation is part of the Irrealis category. In Mataguayan languages including Nivaĉle, verbs exhibit complex paradigms of pronominal argument prefixes (five different conjugation sets, Fabre 2016) that further vary based on realis & irrealis distinctions. However, in our data affirmative and negative pronominal prefixes pattern with Realis in declaratives, but with Irrealis in non-declarative contexts.