Documentation

Linglib.Typology.Negation

Typology.Negation #

@cite{dryer-2013-wals} @cite{haspelmath-2013} @cite{miestamo-2005}

Per-language typological substrate for the standard sentential negation marker of a language: form, morphological status, position, symmetric/ asymmetric status, asymmetry subtype, and negative-indefinite strategy.

Mirrors the Linglib/Typology/Possession.lean (Possession), Question.lean (Question), and Case.lean (Case) substrate-extension pattern: the substrate carries (a) per-paradigm-entry schema (NegMarkerEntry, NegationSystem), (b) the WALS-bundled per-language NegationProfile, (c) WALS converters and aggregate-distribution helpers / theorems.

What lives here #

Theory-laden caveats #

NegSymmetry and AsymmetrySubtype are WALS Ch 113/114 values (@cite{dryer-haspelmath-2013}). @cite{miestamo-2005}'s richer two-dimension framework (constructional vs paradigmatic asymmetry, derived vs independent source) lives in Studies/Miestamo2005.lean because it goes beyond what WALS encodes.

Out of scope #

Polarity-sensitive items (n-words, NPIs, FCIs) are NOT marker-side data; they live in Typology/PolarityItem.lean and in each language's Fragments/{Lang}/PolarityItems.lean. Cross-linguistic theorems consuming Fragment per-language data live in Phenomena/Negation/Studies/Dryer2013.lean (Ch 112/143A/144A grounding) and Studies/Miestamo2005.lean (Ch 113-115 grounding).

Type of the standard negation morpheme @cite{dryer-2013-wals}.

Six categories anchored on WALS Ch 112A (negative morpheme classification). Direct projection from Data.WALS.F112A.NegativeMorphemeType via ofWALS112A; the substrate enum exists for ergonomic pattern-matching in Fragment files.

  • affix : NegMorphemeType

    Negative affix on the verb (e.g., Kolyma Yukaghir el-jaqa-te-je 'NEG-achieve-FUT-1SG').

  • particle : NegMorphemeType

    Free negative particle, no verbal inflection (e.g., English not, Italian non).

  • auxVerb : NegMorphemeType

    Negative auxiliary verb inflecting for verbal categories (e.g., Finnish e-n 'NEG-1SG').

  • wordUnclear : NegMorphemeType

    Negative word whose status as verb or particle is unclear, typically in isolating languages (e.g., Maori kaahore).

  • variation : NegMorphemeType

    Language uses both negative word and negative affix in different constructions (e.g., Rama).

  • doubleNeg : NegMorphemeType

    Bipartite negation: two co-occurring morphemes flanking the verb (e.g., French ne...pas, Izi to-...-du).

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      Position of the negation morpheme relative to the verb.

      One-way coarsening of WALS Ch 144A's full S/O/V grid. The wals144A field on NegationSystem preserves the precise WALS classification for callers that need decoarsening.

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          WALS Ch 113A: whether negation changes clause structure beyond adding the negative marker. Symmetric: no structural change. Asymmetric: changes in finiteness, verb paradigm, or TAM marking.

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              WALS Ch 114A: which grammatical domain is affected by asymmetric negation. The four primary subtypes correspond to @cite{miestamo-2005}'s A/Fin (finiteness), A/NonReal (reality status), A/Emph (emphasis), A/Cat (other categories) plus combined codings.

              Note: WALS Ch 114 does not encode A/Emph as a separate value (@cite{miestamo-2005} Table 2 distinguishes it; WALS collapses it).

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                  WALS Ch 115A: how negative indefinites interact with predicate negation.

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                      WALS Ch 143A: position of negative morpheme relative to verb. Single-negation types (NegV/VNeg/[Neg-V]/[V-Neg]) plus multi-negation types (obligatory/optional double, optional triple).

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                          WALS Ch 143E/F: whether a language has preverbal and/or postverbal negative morphemes.

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                              One language's standard sentential negation marker.

                              • form : String

                                Surface form. For affixal negation this is an abstract citation form (e.g., Turkish -mE- for the harmony-conditioned -ma- / -me- alternants). For tonal/morphological negation use position := .morphological and document the realization in the def docstring.

                              • gloss : String

                                Standard interlinear gloss. Defaults to the WALS-style "NEG".

                              • morphemeType : NegMorphemeType

                                Morphological status: affix, free particle, auxiliary, etc.

                              • Coarse position relative to the verb.

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                                  A language's standard negation system.

                                  The Fragment-side joint: every Fragments/{Lang}/Negation.lean exposes def negationSystem : NegationSystem. Multiple markers handle languages with mood/aspect/lexical-class alternation (Greek, Mandarin, Korean). Length-1 for most languages.

                                  WALS datapoints are bundled at the system level — in WALS coding, F112A/F143A/F144A take one value per language regardless of how many markers the language has.

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                                      A language's negation profile across WALS Chapters 112-115, plus fields from @cite{greco-2020} (negIsHead) and @cite{jin-koenig-2021} (enAttested).

                                      Sibling Fragment-side joint to NegationSystem: every Fragments/{Lang}/Negation.lean exposes def negationProfile : NegationProfile. The two joints are independent because the data partition is real: negationSystem.markers is consumed by lexical code; negationProfile is consumed by typology studies. Mirrors Typology/Possession.lean::PossessionProfile.

                                      • language : String

                                        Language name.

                                      • iso : String

                                        ISO 639-3 code.

                                      • morphemeType : NegMorphemeType

                                        Ch 112: how standard negation is expressed.

                                      • symmetry : NegSymmetry

                                        Ch 113: symmetric, asymmetric, or both.

                                      • asymmetrySubtype : AsymmetrySubtype

                                        Ch 114: asymmetry subtype (nonAssignable if symmetric only).

                                      • negIndefinite : Option NegIndefiniteStrategy

                                        Ch 115: strategy for negative indefinites, if attested.

                                      • negMarkers : List String

                                        Illustrative negative marker form(s).

                                      • negIsHead : Option Bool

                                        Is the negation marker a syntactic head (X°) rather than a phrase (XP)? Relevant for @cite{greco-2020}: only head-status markers can merge in CP to produce surprise negation.

                                      • enAttested : Option Bool

                                        Is expletive negation attested in this language? @cite{jin-koenig-2021} (722-language survey: EN in 74 languages) and @cite{rett-2026}.

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                                          WALS Ch 143A → NegVerbPosition.

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                                            Build a NegationSystem for a language identified by ISO 639-3 code, pulling F112A / F143A / F144A values from the Data.WALS data.

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                                              Does a language use a given morpheme type?

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                                                Does a language have symmetric negation (either symmetric only or both)?

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                                                  Does a language have asymmetric negation (either asymmetric only or both)?

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                                                    Does a language show negative concord?

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                                                      Count of languages in a sample with a given morpheme type.

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                                                        Count of languages in a sample with a given symmetry type.

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                                                          Ch 113: SymAsy (both) is the most common type, followed by Sym, then Asy.

                                                          Ch 115: negative concord (co-occurrence) outnumbers preclusion by 15×.

                                                          Ch 143A: preverbal negation (particle or affix) dominates postverbal.