Chapter Eleven

Negation is known to vary considerably in both form and morphosyntactic function among the languages of the Arawak family (Aikhenvald 1999: 96), with even closely-related languages sometimes exhibiting negation elements with starkly different forms and functions. The purpose of this chapter is to present a typological overview of negation in Arawak languages and to develop a preliminary comparative synthesis of negation constructions in this major language family. In this chapter I examine standard negation, prohibitive constructions, and privative prefixes; other forms of negation described in the preceding chapters, such as negative pronouns and existential negation, are omitted due to the lack of adequate descriptive coverage in the broader sample on which this chapter is based. This chapter draws on the detailed studies in this volume of Apurinã [apu], Garifuna [cab], Kurripako [kpc], Lokono [arw], Nanti [cox], Paresi [pab], Tariana [tae], and Mojeño Trinitario [trn], as well as drawing on published resources that describe negation in 19 other Arawak languages: Achagua [aca], Añun [pbg], Bare [bae], Baure [brg], Iñapari [inp], Kawiyarí [cbb], Kinikinau [gqn], Palikúr [plu], Piapoco [pio], Resígaro [rgr], Terena [ter], Wapishana [wap], Warekena [gae], Wauja [wau], Wayuu [guc], Yánesha' [ame], Yavitero [yvt], Yine [pib], and Yucuna [ycn]. These 27 languages, out of approximately 40 living and recently extinct Arawak languages, represent all of the major branches the family with living members (see Ch. 1), with several branches represented by more than one language. I discuss standard negation in §B, first in terms of a structural typology of negation constructions in §B.1, and then, in §B.2, in terms of Miestamo’s (2005) influential typology of negation, which is based on the ways in which negated clauses differ from their affirmative