B03

Project Overview

This project investigates how negation interacts with other functional elements in representative Mabia and Bantu languages (two Niger-Congo families). Despite being only distantly related, Mabia and Bantu show similar patterns in how negation interacts with functional projections. This project attributes these parallels to general properties of negation rather than to a shared proto-language.

Research Questions & Theoretical Framework

The research hypothesizes that morphosyntactic interactions arise with central functional projections along the clausal spine, especially at phase edges. The project provides a testing ground for the two central CRC hypotheses on negation, Neg-Plus and Neg-Only, and directly addresses the core question of area B of the CRC: “How can we explain similarities and interactions between negation and other grammatical categories?”. This research focuses on interactions between sentential negation and tense/aspect (vP periphery), and between negation, focus, and imperatives (CP periphery).

Methodologies & Data

The rich inventories of markers in Mabia and Bantu make them ideal for studying negation and its interactions, revealing properties that are often not visible in better-described languages. In further periods, the project will expand the database based on first-phase hypotheses and investigate more complex phenomena such as Neg-raising and negative polarity.