Negation in Tiv

Abstract

The article explores and discusses negation in Tiv syntax within the universal framework of the negator as an element that changes the truth value of a proposition. It identifies the negative markers in the language and provides a description of the structural positions in which they occur, along with the resulting structural changes. The justification for this work is premised on the fact that negation in Tiv has not been formally explored, and it is hoped that the study will present a formal account of negation in the language for cross-linguistic studies. Data for the discussion were obtained through participant observation and the author’s native-speaker intuition. For the analysis, the study adopts the constructs of the Principles and Parameters (P&P) approach. The scope of the study covers important aspects such as subject and object negation, as well as negation in relative structures. The article reveals that Tiv has two exponent markers for negation: ei (‘no’) in the CP domain and ga (‘not’) in the IP domain. It further shows that imperative constructions mark negation sentence-initially (in the CP domain), while declarative constructions mark it sentence-finally (in the IP domain). The analysis demonstrates that negation in sentence-initial position expresses the force of negation. It also discloses that although negation in declarative sentences is marked in situ in the sentence-final position, the negated element can be extraposed for focus. The study concludes that negation in Tiv is characterized by scope, and that left- and right-periphery marking is typical of edge feature percolation.