Jespersen Cycle Research Articles

Negation in Contact: French and Occitan

AbstractDevelopment of negative markers along the lines of the well‐known Jespersen's Cycle occurred in a wide number of languages. This article investigates the possibility of contact playing a role in such developments in Lengadocian Occitan. The evolution of negation in Lengadocian Occitan followed two main lines. It first developed a postverbal negative marker ges, until increased contact with French from the fifteenth century onwards meant that the language initially adopted the two main postverbal negative markers of French pas and point, in the form of their cognates pas and ponch. In the early modern period (fifteenth to eighteenth century), prolonged contact with French was a key factor in the ultimate selection of pas as the sole postverbal marker. But the pace of grammaticalisation of this marker in Occitan was quicker and went further than in French, in that from the eighteenth century pas is often the sole negative marker, and that it starts early on to appear together with negative polarity items. This means that when the preverbal negative marker disappears, negative concord is maintained, contrary to modern spoken French.

The rise and fall of illocutionary negation: Evidence from Veneto

In this paper we sketch a model which can describe Jespersen's cycle in two varieties spoken in Veneto, Venetian and Gazzolese. We compare the case of Veneto with previous descriptions of Jespersen's cycle in Italian. We show that the minimizer mica was reanalysed as illocutionary negation in Italian and Venetian because of the interplay between the economy principle ‘Avoid Pragmatic Overload’ (Eckardt, 2009) and markedness. We also show that the tension between these two factors eventually led Gazzolese to reach a more advanced step of the cycle, where mia denotes standard negation.

NEGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF GERMAN: THE CASE OF MULTIPLE NEGATION

This paper discusses the evolutionary path of sentence negation development in the history of the German language. The peculiarities of means of multiple negation realization in the studied periods of the language development have been analyzed, taking into account changes in the paradigm of negative markers of Old, Middle, and Early New High German. In terms of polynegation, the attention has been focused on the negative concord, accompanied by a preverbal marker and an additional negative adverb or pronoun. It has been found that the implementation of the negative concord involves a single semantic core of negation. The reasons for the transition from double to single negation in the appropriate period of the German language development have been highlighted. The study of the mechanisms of grammaticalization made it possible to trace the development of negative grammatical constructions, namely the loss of syntactic independence and morphological diversity of elements in the syntactic paradigm. The gradual nature of sentence negation has been presented according to Jespersen's cycle, which reflects the weakening of the mononegative proclitic with its subsequent strengthening with the help of an additional negative pronoun, and, as a result, the return to the mononegative model in which the second negative element was implemented. A particular attention has been paid to the phenomenon of grammatical redundancy and its manifestations in the transformation of the negative model in diachrony. In linguistic studies, grammatical redundancy is characterized as a property or language behavior when the same function is realized by two or more means. The gradual elimination of the additional negative element contributed to the isolation of the mononegative model inherited by Modern German. It has been also shown that structural changes in negative sentences are closely related to a relatively free or limited word order.

Negative Markers in Lamaholot, Eastern Flores – Indonesia: The Case of Kiwangona Dialect

This paper aims at answering two following questions: (1). What are the types of negative markers in Kiwangona dialects of the Lamaholot based on Mosel and Spriggs’ negation patterns ? ; (2). To what extent do negative markers in the Kiwangona dialect fill the stages in Jespersen Cycle? This research is qualitative in nature. The data were obtained from a two-week field trip to Bayunta’a village of Ile Boleng subdistrict on Adonara island. Data were collected through a series of elicitation processes and note-taking activities from five informants. The data were then analyzed by using Mosel and Spriggs’s theory of negation patterns (1999) as well as the stages of the Jespersen Cycle (1917). Results show that (1) negative markers in Kiwangona fill all five kinds of negative patterns hypothesized by Mosel and Spriggs. Second, the most significant finding is that due to historical contact with a non-Austronesian language, Kiwangona as a single dialect fills all three stages of the Jespersen Cycle compared to Fricke's assessment on negative markers in Flores-Lembata languages. Furthermore, certain lexico-grammatical changes that appeared in Kiwangona negative clauses are mainly due to grammaticalization and a higher degree of negators' movability. Dealing with the results above, the Kiwangona dialect may be considered as a more complex Lamaholot dialect in terms of negation patterns compared to others. Therefore, more research should be carried out on many other undocumented dialects in order to end up with a clearer situation of the negation in Lamaholot dialects.

Introduction

AbstractInSection 1of my introduction to this Special Issue, I define the concept of semantic–pragmatic cycles, a relatively recently discovered phenomenon, drawing a distinction between two sub-types: onomasiological and semasiological cycles. Semantic–pragmatic cycles are contrasted with the more widely known (morpho-)syntactic cycles such as the Negative Cycle (or Jespersen Cycle), and I discuss possible connections between these two types of cycles. Finally, I raise some questions for further research. InSection 2, I outline the empirical and/or theoretical contribution of each of the six papers that follow – considering, in particular, how they contribute to elucidating the role of pragmatics in cyclic change.

Zaparoan negation revisited

The paper revisits negation in the Zaparoan languages Arabela, Iquito and Záparo. For Iquito, which exhibits single, double as well as triple negation, we adopt a Jespersen Cycle perspective and find it to have explanatory force. For Záparo and Arabela another Cycle hypothesis proves enlightening, i.e., the Negative Existential Cycle. We hypothesize that both in Iquito and Záparo there is a diachronic link between the formal expression of negation and of the concept for ‘leave’/‘go’. We addressed the internal subclassification of the Zaparoan languages, showing that, at least for the structural feature of negation, the position of Arabela is closer to Záparo than to Iquito.

Standard negation in Awa Pit: From synchrony to diachrony

AbstractThis study deals with clausal negation in Awa Pit, a Barbacoan language spoken in South America. By bringing together the data on negation from different varieties of the language, we present an analysis of synchronic patterns of negation marking. Based on the variation we suggest a number of innovations in the negation system, for which we put forward diachronic scenarios. Some innovations are likely to be contact-induced, whereas others are products of language-internal diachronic processes. The latter involve mechanisms associated with a classical ‘Jespersen Cycle’. However, Awa Pit offers us very non-classical Jespersen’s Cycles – at best. The case of Awa Pit is instructive as some of the scenarios that we suggest are likely to be relevant for other languages or languages families.

Negation in Kulina

AbstractThis study reconstructs the development of a negative existential and a negative pro-sentence in the Arawan language Kulina (Brazil-Peru). We demonstrate that the two elements forming the negative existential constructionnowe (hi)ra-are involved in a double polarity swap: (i) an originally neutral lexical item (the dynamic verbnowe‘show’) has become negative through contamination, and (ii) an originally negative element(hi)ra-, which was responsible for the contamination, is bleaching into a semantically neutral auxiliary. This lexemenowe, with the auxiliary used only optionally, also functions as a negative pro-sentence now. Thus, synchronically we have a negative pro-sentence that has its origin in a semantically-neutral lexical item. Neither the source of the negative pro-sentence nor this diachronic path has surfaced in the literature on negation so far and thus they are instructive from diachronic and typological perspectives. The hypothesis enriches the literature on both the Jespersen Cycle and the Negative Existential Cycle.

Negation in Berber: Variation, evolution, and typology

AbstractDouble and triple negation marking is an ancient and deep-rooted feature that is attested in almost the entire Berber-speaking area (North Africa and diaspora), regardless of the type of negators in use; i. e., discontinuous markers (preverbal and postverbal negators) and dedicated negative verb stem alternations. In this article, we deal with the main stages that have led to the present Berber negation patterns and we argue, from a typological viewpoint, that certain morphophonetic mechanisms are to be regarded as a hitherto overlooked source for new negators. Moreover, we present a number of motivations that account for the hypothesis that, in Berber, those languages with both a preverbal and a postverbal negator belong to a diachronic stage prior to the attested languages with a preverbal negator only. Consequently, the study demonstrates that the Jespersen Cycle is back to the beginning in certain Berber languages. In doing so, we also show that Berber is to be regarded as a substrate in the development of double negation in North African Arabic. In addition, the study accounts for the asymmetric nature of Berber negation, although some new developments towards more symmetrical negation configurations are also attested.

Negative Indefinites in the history of Portuguese : the case of <em>nemigalha</em>

This paper focuses on negative indefinites in Portuguese, paying particular attention to nemigalha, a negative indefinite that disappeared from the language around the 16th century. We claim that nemigalha originates from the reanalysis of the negative particle nem and the minimizer migalha in an early stage of the language, starting as a weak negative polarity item and then becoming a strong negative polarity item, in the sense of Martins (1997, 2000). It is well known that minimizers can grammaticalize into intrinsically negative items, being good candidates to undergo the Jespersen Cycle (Jespersen 1917). Although that was not the case of nemigalha, it completed all the grammaticalization stages proposed by Garzonio & Poletto (2008, 2009), losing all the properties of a common noun and being able to stand alone as the only negative marker in preverbal position. The comparison between nemigalha and the negative indefinite nada shows that both items exhibited similar behaviour and occurred in identical contexts, probably acting as competing items until nemigalha’s disappearance. Furthermore, a few examples from the 16th century suggest that nemigalha might have become a more functional item, participating as a negation marker in presuppositional contexts (cf. Larrivée 2010 and Hansen 2013).

The rise of clause-final negation in Flores-Lembata, Eastern Indonesia

Abstract The Austronesian languages of Flores-Lembata in eastern Indonesia show all three stages of a Jespersen Cycle: some have a negator in pre-predicate position, others in clause-final position, and yet others have embracing double negation. In this article the various negation patterns in the Flores-Lembata languages are described using a sample of nine closely related languages of the region. It examines not only the negative constructions but also the etymology of the negators used, showing historical connections between some of the languages, as well as independent developments in others. On the basis of cross-linguistic evidence, and taking into account the non-Austronesian (Papuan) structures found in these Flores-Lembata languages, it is argued that the clause-final negation in several of these languages was caused by contact with speakers of Papuan languages during an earlier stage.

Kiranti double negation

AbstractIt is shown how Kiranti languages often express a semantically single clausal negation of a declarative verbal main clause with two clausal negators. We conjecture that the second negator has its origin in a copula and that the reinterpretation and integration of the copula into a negative construction follows the scenario known as a “Jespersen Cycle”.

Conflict, cheap talk, and Jespersen's cycle

Game-theory has found broad application in modeling meaning in both the classical Gricean case of common interests between interlocutors and, more recently, in cases of conflicting interests. Here we consider how conflicting interests between speakers and hearers can be used to explain language change. We use tools from evolutionary game theory to characterize the effect of conflicting interests in the case of Jespersen’s cycle. We show how the cycle can be modeled as an inflationary process due to signaling with costless signals under conflicting interests. We fit the resulting dynamic model to time series data drawn from a historical corpus of Middle English. EARLY ACCESS Supplementary Material Appendix (PDF) Material (ZIP)

Jespersen Cycles on Malekula

AbstractIn the indigenous languages of Malekula Island, members of Oceanic, diverse standard negation strategies have been identified, including double negation, simple preverbal negators, and simple postverbal negators. Individual languages may display more than one strategy. In this article, evidence from Malekula is considered for the typological hypothesis known as the Jespersen Cycle(s). Six standard negation strategies are described in detail and illustrated using data from a sample of Malekula languages. Here, the Jespersen Cycle hypothesis is employed to understand diversity in the synchronic patterning of standard negation in a comparative analysis of the sample: the diverse standard negation strategies found both language-internally and comparatively can be understood as iterations of the Jespersen Cycle(s).

‘Giving a Rat's’ about Negation: The Jespersen Cycle in Modern Australian English

This study is an overview of the Jespersen cycle in casual spoken Australian English. The phenomenon of the Jespersen cycle of negation is well known: negative polarity items (NPIs) such as French pas ‘step’ are recruited for emphasis and subsequently reanalysed as the negator, eventually triggering the old negator's omission. Recently, efforts have been made to align developments in British and American English negation with this model, such as Cheshire's description of the punctual never (e.g. I never went to school today) and Hoeksema's investigation of the reanalysis of taboo NPIs such as jack all as negators. Some 4,982 tokens of negation in the Australian English corpora were examined to evaluate the tug-of-war between speakers' pragmatic desires to avoid face-threatening negation and the necessity of maintaining functionality in the negator.

The Development of Southern Min Demonstratives + Type Classifier/Quantifier Construction in Late Ming and Early Qing Texts: From Demonstratives to Intensifiers

This paper explores the change in constructions featuring proximal/distal demonstratives + type classifier/quantifier attested in Southern Min playscripts published in the late Ming and early Qing. Hur^2 許/tsi^2只and iunn^7樣form particular constructions that have a range of features in syntax, semantics, phonology, and pragmatics. The sense of type is depleted when fusional words hiunn^3向and tsiunn^3障are formed. The missing sense of type can be refurbished by new type classifiers such as puann^1般, sinn^1生, and ni^5年. The newly emerging hiunn^3 puann^1/sinn^1/ni^5向般/生/年or tsiunn^3 puann^1/sinn^1/ni^5障般/生/年reflects the phenomenon of Jespersen's Cycle. The new function of the fusional words led to the change of determiner + classifier to intensifier as a modifier of scalar adjectives or anaphors with discourse function. Another fusional word, tsuah^4拙, results from the fusion of tsi^2只and ua^7夥, denoting 'many' tsuah^4拙, and takes on the function of intensifier when its quantity sense is depleted. This is also a reflection of Jespersen's Cycle. This paper concludes that the demonstrative + type classifier/quantifier construction exhibits chronological strata and subdialectal variation.

Old French negation, the Tobler/Mussafia law, and V2

Old French finite clauses were normally negated by preverbal ne, whose structural status is shown here to be problematic. Ne displayed contradictory syntactic properties. On the one hand it allowed null subjects, thus seeming to ‘count’ for Verb Second. It also respected the Tobler/Mussafia law by allowing a pronominal clitic to stand in preverbal position. In these respects it behaved as an ordinary clause-initial constituent. However, ne could not induce VSpro order, as an initial clause constituent normally did, and indeed allowed a constituent preceding it to do so. Ne exhibited similarly contradictory properties in behaving as a clitic itself, yet acting as a host for pronominal clitics in the forms nel and nes. These paradoxes are addressed here by postulating that ne was undergoing a change in categorial status, involving grammar competition between two structural alternatives (Kroch, 2001): ne as a free negative clause constituent co-existed in earlier Old French with a special clitic negator ne; the Jespersen cycle of negation is seen as producing synchronic states where more than one stage of the cycle is attested.

The dynamics of the PF interface: Negation and clitic clusters

In this article we take into account the different development of Italian and French with respect to the Jespersen cycle of negation: both languages started with a similar system, but are nowadays rather different. We argue that several different factors are involved in the activation of the cycle, which is the result of a general economy strategy. We claim that Jespersen's cycle can be blocked if speakers have access to any kind of evidence that the negative marker is complex. Here we provide evidence that the cycle is blocked when the preverbal negative marker is morphologically complex (i.e. at least bi-morphemic). We investigate several Italo-Romance varieties (both old and modern) and show that the alternation between two forms of the preverbal negative marker which depends on the presence of object clitics can either be a syntactic process or a phonological one, (although still sensitive to syntactic information). We argue that these morpho-phonological phenomena block the activation of the cycle as they make the bi-morphemic nature of the negative marker recognizable by the speakers. In addition, the data we present can shed light on the more general principles that map the PF interface.

Introduction to the special issue: ‘Negation and Clitics in French: Interaction and Variation’

ABSTRACTThis introduction presents very briefly some of the main issues currently discussed around negation particles and clitics in contemporary French and taken up by the six contributions it assembles, namely language change (grammaticalisation of clitics into agreement markers, completion of the Jespersen Cycle) vs. stable variation, and external (sociolinguistic) or internal (phonotactic, prosodic, or syntactic) factors triggering variation in both cases; the hypothesis of a potential diglossia in French opposing two grammars with considerable syntactic differences. Five out of six contributions focus on modern standard and non-standard varieties of French, with a formal theoretical background, while one shows a more philological-descriptive approach and is dedicated to Old French manuscripts.

French imperatives, negativene, and non-subject clitics

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the behaviour of negation and clitics in the context of French imperatives. Standard descriptions contrast positiveFais-le !(with enclisis) with negative(Ne) le fais pas !(with proclisis). I adopt a view of imperatives in terms of a pragmatic irrealis mood feature associated with Rizzi's (1997) exploded CP and defective/impoverished morphology which allows inflection and irrealis mood features to be checked on a single functional head. Thus, positive imperatives can check all their grammatical features before merger of any clitics, which (following Shlonsky, 2004) will therefore be enclitic. The presence of negation, when realised as a grammatical feature on an (overt or null) functional head within the clausal trunk, prevents this from happening because negation intervenes between the relevant inflection and mood features in the universal hierarchy underlying the Rizzi/Cinque exploded CP/IP. Outside cliticisation contexts, the difference has no surface impact:Viens !vs.(Ne) viens pas !In cliticisation contexts, in contrast, there is a surface difference: negative imperatives cannot check all their inflectional features at the point at which clitics are merged, and clitics will not therefore be enclitic. Regionally/stylistically marked forms likeFais-le pas !, in which proclisis and negation co-occur, must be deemed to have a radically different structure, with no negative feature projected within the inflectional domain. Such forms are argued to be a natural (and therefore expected) innovation within Jespersen's cycle of diachronic development.