Download The caritive and abessive negation in the changing system of

The caritive and abessive negation in the changing system of negation in
Nganasan
This presentation focuses on the Nganasan caritive and abessive. The hypothesis is
that these suffixes are markers of a special type of negation. The goal of this
contribution is to pin down the exact meanings on the basis of new data, comparing
them to the data of the abessive (caritive) in Finnic.
Uralic, Altaic and several other typologically divergent languages have a case that is
referred to as the caritive or the abessive. The standard descriptions of Nganasan
employ both labels; the two suffixes are morphologically and distributionally
distinct. Abessive is a mood suffix and a suffix for forming participles, caritive is a
case suffix. An example of the caritive (-kaľi, -gaľi, -kaj, -gaj) follows in (1), where the
suffix is attached to the noun kümaa ’knife’.
(1)
Mənə ďesɨmə
kümaa-gi͡aľi iču
I
father-1SG knife-CAR be.3SG
‘My father does not have a knife.’
An example of the abessive mood suffix in Nganasan is illustrated in (2), where the
suffix is attached to the verb kona- ’go’. Subjective and objective conjugation suffixes
are (S1)+-mətumaɁa, -məδumaɁa, -mətɨmɨɁa, -məδɨmɨɁa, the suffixes for the conjugation
of reflexive and multiple objects are (S1)+ -mətumaɁi, -məδumaɁi, -mətɨmɨɁi, -məδɨmaɁi.
(2)
mənə ŋɨɨtənə
kona-mətumɨɁə-m
basu-ďa
I
yet.not-GEN.1SG go-ABES-1SG
‘I have not yet gone hunting.’
hunt-INF
An example of the abessive participle suffix in Nganasan is illustrated in (3), where
the suffix (-mətumaɁa, -mətɨmɨɁa, -məδumaɁa, -məδɨmɨɁa) is attached to the verb kona’leave, go’.
(3)
Taa-ču
huδurtəkə-mətumaɁa kuəďümu ma-tə
čii-Ɂə.
reindeer-Pl3SG harness-Abess
man
tent-Lat
enter-AOR.3SG
‘The man who did not harness the reindeers yet went into the tent.’
Estonian has one suffix referred to as abessive. In other Finnic languages, its
correlates are also referred to as caritive. The suffix combines with nouns and,
diachronically, non-finite verbs, expressing meanings that are comparable those the
illustrated in the examples above. In Estonian, it is claimed that certain abessive
constructions express presuppositional negation, and the abessive marked non-finite
constructions are instances of not yet completely grammaticalized perfect negations
(Tamm to appear).
Similarly to Finnic, the caritive negation as in (1) is not the only type of negation in
the grammatical system. In addition to the negation by means of the negation verb
and caritive, the system of negation in Nganasan comprises is a standard negation
auxiliary úisɨ 'not-be'. In (4) illustrates a negation in a possessive sentence.
(4)
Mənə ďesɨ-mə
kümaa-δu
ďaŋku.
I
father-1SG knife-3SG
is-not
‘My father does not have a knife.’
Generally, in the examples the existence of the referent of the caritive marked NP is
presupposed, as in (5), where the existence of a wife is presupposed.
(5)
Mənə natətə
nɨ-gaj
kona-Ɂa-ŋ.
I
from-me
wife-CAR go-AOR-2SG
‘You went from me without your wife.’ (You have one.)
We can assume that the caritive negation is an earlier development, the meaning of
which is 1) either becoming non-transparent or 2) developing into a new meaning,
since example (6) (recent data) shows that existential negation is expressed by a
combination of the caritive construction and the negation verb.
(6)
Мənə ďesɨmə
kümaa-gi͡aľi ďaŋku.
I
father-1SG knife-CAR is-not
‘My father does not have a knife.’
The abessive mood as in (2) is an exclusively negative mood. There are no examples
of this mood combining with other expressions of negation. The presupposition in
sentences that have verbs marked with the abessive is that a certain event will
happen. The form expresses that this event has not yet happened. In the sentence ’I
have not yet gone hunting’, the subject referent will go hunting once. The sentence
with the abessive participle as in (3) denotes an event that has not taken place yet: the
man who did not harness the reindeers is described in the sentence as somebody
who will once harness the reindeers but has not yet done so. In case of telic events,
the participle expresses that the event has either not started or not reached its
endpoint, as in (7) or (8), or, in case of atelic events, that the event has not started yet,
as in (9).
(7)
büü-mətumaɁa ‘(the one who has) not yet gone away’
(8)
kəntɨ-mətɨmaɁa ‘(that which has) not frozen completely yet’
(9)
hoδətə-məδumaɁa ‘(the one who has) not yet started to study’
We can conclude that the Nganasan caritive and abessive are parts of constructions
of negation. The meaning of the Nganasan caritive is changing in the context of
negation in this language, and we have some but not conclusive evidence for
regarding it a presuppositional negation. The abessive mood corresponds to perfect
negation, and the participles are negative perfect participles. One of the further
questions is whether the relationship between caritives or abessives, on the one hand,
and presuppositionality or perfect negations, on the other, 1) is a more general
development in languages, 2) is due to the relatedness of languages (Uralic) or 3) is
dependent on contact. At this point of research, the data suggest considerable
similarity between the developments in the meaning of the Finnic and Nganasan
caritive/abessive negation.