Article

Name: Structure and semantics of negative biverbal constructions in the Altai language

Authors: Alena R. Tazranova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract:

This paper considers the morphological verbal negation in biverbal constructions. Depending on the negation affix location, two structural types of negative biverbal constructions were identified. The first involves a negative form of the autosemantic component: Tv=NEG.CV + VAUX=TEMP/MOD=PERS. The second comprises a negative form of the auxiliary component, with the autosemantic component taking one of the adverbial forms: Tv=CV + VAUX=NEG=TEMP/MOD=PERS. The position of the negative affix is not a simple structural variation: it reveals the semantic differences manifested in the set of auxiliary verbs and meanings transmitted by the construction. When the negative marker is located on the significant component, the negation does not go beyond the limits of aspectuality, indicating the incompleteness of the perfective action and denying the corresponding aspectual semantics. When the second component is negated, various modal and evidential meanings, e.g., those of impossibility, firm statement of the speaker, and others, additionally appear. The specifics of using negative analytical constructions with auxiliary verbs is that they may not always have a semantic pair in positive constructions with the same verbs. Semantically, negative constructions express not only negation or absence but also various specific shades introduced by each auxiliary verb. For example, the verb al= is used in positive constructions as an auxiliary with the meaning of “doing something in your own interests, for yourself.” In negative constructions, the verb al= expresses the impossibility of action or state, with the auxiliary verb bar= expressing the termination of action, called a negative adverbial participle.

Keywords: verbal analytical constructions, negative biverbal constructions, negation affix, modality, aspectuality, actionality, Turkic languages, Altaic language, morphology

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