The Distribution of the Sentential Negative Marker in Dashtestani Dialect: A Minimalist Approach

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

University of Razi Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract

The present paper aims to investigate the distribution of the sentential negative marker in Dashtestani dialect within the framework of Chomsky’s (1995; 2001) Minimalist Program. As well as adhering to the beginning of the tensed main verbs and tensed auxiliary verbs, the sentential negative marker in this dialect is able to sit immediately before the objects. Following Zanuttini (1997; 2001), Haegeman (1995), Haegeman and Zanuttini (1991), Payne (1985), Ouhalla (1990), Halle and Marantez (1993), and Laka (1991), the study examines the morphological and phonological nature of the sentential negative marker, together with its distributional properties on the hierarchical structure of the sentence. The findings of the study show that the sentential negative marker is considered a ‘negative prefix’ in the position immediately preceding the tensed main and auxiliary verbs and a ‘negative particle’ before the object. Having generated in the head of NegP, the negative marker as the negative prefix agrees with the verb so that its uninterpretable features are checked and valuated. The negative marker is then manifested on the verb after the syntactic levels by means of the application of morpho-phonological rules. It is also suggested that negative marker as a negative particle is generated in the head of a different NegP.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

کواک، سه‌را (1387). ساخت جملات منفی در زبان فارسی. پایان‌نامة دکتری. تهران: دانشگاه تهران.
Chomsky, N. (1986). Barriers. Cambridge, M.A: The MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge: M.A: The MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (2001). Derivation by phase. In Kenstowicz, M (Ed.) Ken Hale: A Life in Language, 1-52. Cambridge: M.A: The MIT Press.
Haegeman, L. (1995). The Syntax of Negation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haegeman, L., Zanuttini R. (1991). Negative heads and the neg criterion. The Linguistic Review 8, 233-251.
Halle, M., and Marantz, A. (1993). Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J. (Eds.), The View from Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger, 111-176. Cambridge: M.A: The MIT Press.
Hornstein, N., Nunes, J., Grohmann, K. K. (2005). Understanding Minimalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jespersen, O. (1917). Negation in English and Other Languages. Copenhagen: A. F. Høst.
Jespersen, O. (1964) [1933]. Essentials of English grammar. Reprint. Alabama: University of Alabama Press.
Klima, E.S. (1964). Negation in English. In Fodor, J.A. & Katz, J.J. (Eds.). The Structure of Language, 246-323. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Kwak, S. (2010). Negation in Persian. Iranian Studies 43(5) , 621-636.
Laka, I. (1991). Negation in syntax: On the nature of functional categories and projections. ASJU, XXV-I, 65-136.
Lasnik, H. (2002). The Minimalist program in syntax. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 6, 432-437.
Ouhalla, J. (1990). Sentential negation, relativized minimality and the aspectual status of auxiliaries. Linguistic Review 7, 183–231.
Payne, J. R. (1985). Negation. In Shopen T. (Ed.) Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. I: Clause Structure, 197–242. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pollock, J.Y. (1989). Verb movement, universal grammar, and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20, 365-424.
Taleghani, A. (2006). The interaction of modality, aspect and negation in Persian (Doctoral dissertation). The University of Arizona.
Weiss, H. (2002). Three types of negation: A case study in Bavarian. In Barbiers, S., Cornips, L. & Van der Kleij, S. (Eds.), Syntactic Microvariation, 305-332. Electronic Publication: Meertens Institute.
Willis, D., Lucas, C., Breitbarth, A. (2013). Comparing diachronies of negation. In Willis, D., Lucas, C. & Breitbarth, A. (Eds.). The History of Negation in the Languagesof Europe and the Mediterranean, Vol. I: Case studies, 1-50. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zanuttini, R. (1997). Negation and Clausal Structure: A Comparative Study of Romance Languages. New York: Oxford University Press.
Zanuttini, R. (2001). Sentential negation. In Baltin, M. & Collins, C. (Eds.). The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory, 511-535. New York: Blackwell Publishers.
Zeijlstra, H.H. (2004). Sentential negation and negative concord (Doctoral dissertation). University of Amsterdam. Utrecht: LOT Publications.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics