The rise of clause-final negation in Flores-Lembata, Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

The Austronesian languages of Flores-Lembata in eastern Indonesia show all three stages of a Jespersen Cycle: some have a negator in pre-predicate position, others in clause-final position, and yet others have embracing double negation. In this article the various negation patterns in the Flores-Lembata languages are described using a sample of nine closely related languages of the region. It examines not only the negative constructions but also the etymology of the negators used, showing historical connections between some of the languages, as well as independent developments in others. On the basis of cross-linguistic evidence, and taking into account the non-Austronesian (Papuan) structures found in these Flores-Lembata languages, it is argued that the clause-final negation in several of these languages was caused by contact with speakers of Papuan languages during an earlier stage.

Traces of language contact; The Flores-Lembata languages in eastern Indonesia

“…In contrast to the inherited pre-predicate negation and SVO word order, some of the Flores-Lembata languages have innovated clause-final negation (Fricke 2017b) and all Flores-Lembata languages have innovated a set of clause-final deictic motion verbs. The word order features of the noun phrase and two of the deictic motion verbs can be reconstructed to Proto-Flores-Lembata.…”

The dispersal of Austronesian languages in Island South East Asia: Current findings and debates

“…Since they are confined to the region where we know that Papuan languages are, or have been spoken it seems plausible that the structure was borrowed into MP languages from Papuan languages spoken in their vicinities. Other features that appear to have leaked from Papuan languages into MP languages include the use of a post‐predicate negator instead of, or in addition to, a pre‐predicate one (Reesink, ; Klamer et al, , 130–34; Florey, ; Fricke, ); and making a formal distinction between nouns that are alienably or inalienably possessed (Ross, , 138; Klamer et al, , 116–122)…”

“…Since they are confined to the region where we know that Papuan languages are, or have been spoken it seems plausible that the structure was borrowed into MP languages from Papuan languages spoken in their vicinities. Other features that appear to have leaked from Papuan languages into MP languages include the use of a post-predicate negator instead of, or in addition to, a prepredicate one (Reesink, 2002;Klamer et al, 2008, 130-34;Florey, 2010;Fricke, 2017); and making a formal distinction between nouns that are alienably or inalienably possessed (Ross, 2001, 138;Klamer et al, 2008, 116-122). 12 When languages have atypical and additive grammatical features such as these and there are other indications that speakers may have been in contact with speakers of languages that possess these features (e.g., the presence of lexical borrowings), then the atypical grammatical features may be hypothesized to be remnants of contact with those other language(s).…”

The Plural Word hire in Alorese: Contact-Induced Change from Neighboring Alor-Pantar Languages

“…Finally, Alorese also shares at least one syntactic change with Western Lamaholot varieties, namely clause-final negation. While Central Lamaholot varieties (like LH-Central Lembata) still have double negation, Western varieties (and Alorese) have completed the Jespersen Cycle and only have a single clause-final negation particle (Fricke 2017a).…”

“…In LH-Central Lembata (Fricke 2017b), there is a plural suffix -dʒa that can attach to animate (20a) and inanimate nouns (20b). For the description of Sika, I rely on the grammatical description of the Hewa variety by Fricke (2014). In Hewa, bare nouns can have a plural reading, as illustrated by the example in (21).…”