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Negation through reduplication and tone: implications for the Lexical Functional Grammar/Paradigm Function Morphology interface1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2015

OLIVER BOND
OLIVER BOND*
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
*
Author’s address: Surrey Morphology Group, School of English and Languages, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UKo.bond@surrey.ac.uk
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Abstract

Morphological marking of negation through verbal reduplication and tone is a typologically rare phenomenon attested in Eleme (Niger-Congo; Nigeria). Using Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) and Paradigm Function Morphology (PFM) to model first-hand data, I argue that reduplication is not a direct exponent of negation in Eleme, but an asemantic morphomic process, indirectly associated with the presence of a negative polarity feature in LFG’s m(orphological)-structure. While negative verb forms of this kind are typologically unusual, the data can be explained by independently motivated morphology-internal principles. The empirical facts thereby provide support for an m-structure, characterised by its own principles and rules, which interfaces with a bifurcated lexicon that separates content from form.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , 01 July 2016 , pp. 277 - 310
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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