Abstract
Negation is a universal category and languages differ in many respects in the way they express the latter (see Klima 1964). In this regards, some languages express sentential negation (a subcategorization of negation) with one marker (Dutch, German, English, etc.) while others like French uses two markers. Alongside markers used to express sentential negation, other items, among which Negative Polarity Items, mark negation and tight a particular element within its domain. In this paper, I aim at providing a picture of the expression of negation in Awing (a Bantu Grassfield langue of the Ngemba Group spoken in the North West region of Cameroon). Accordingly, sentential negation is expressed with two discontinuous markers kě…pô. One fact important to the presence of this negative marker is the movement of postverbal elements to a preverbal position turning the SVO structure in non-negative clause to an SOV pattern in negative clauses. In addition, the study describes other negative elements and negation subcategories. In last, the study of negative concord reveals that Awing belongs to the group of Strict Negative Concord (SNC) languages in which n-words must co-occur with negative marker to yield negation.
Highlights
It is not altogether unfitting for a study on negation to begin with a negative statement
This paper has addressed the expression of negation in Awing
I have discussed the issue with respect to negative markers, negative polarity items and n-words
Summary
It is not altogether unfitting for a study on negation to begin with a negative statement. Returning to preoccupation set above with consideration to (9), I provided some reasons why ká in Awing data cannot be seen as adverb like its English counterpart Some of these ideas are that (i) ká cannot precede a sentence with subject pronoun (see 9b) with the interchangeable 3’ /ngá does (see 8). Though the recognition of a category solely relies on its position within the sentence, this subclass of NPIs seems (at for Awing) to have as members the two previous subclasses that have been described namely negative adverbs and negative quantifiers. This intuition is based on conditions (i) and (ii) of Giannakidou’s definition of n-words. Let’s continue with another issue under negation referred to as sentential negation and negative concord
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
