Negation in Tiv

Abstract

The article explores and discusses negation in Tiv syntax under the universal context of negator as an element that changes the truth value of a proposition. It identifies the negative markers in the language and gives a description of the positions in the structure that they are marked, and with the resultant structural change. The justification for this work is premised on the fact that negation in Tiv is not formally explored, and it is hoped that the work will present a formal account of negation in the language for cross-linguistic studies. Data for discussion were obtained through participant observation and the Author’s native introspection. For analysis, the work adopted the constructs of the Principles and Parameters (P&P) approach. The scope of the study covers important aspects like subject and object negation, as well as negation in relative structures. In the article, it is presented that Tiv has two exponent markings for negation: ei ‘no’ in the CP domain and ga ‘not’ in the IP domain. The article goes ahead to show that imperative marks negation sentence-initially (CP domain), while the declarative marks it sentence-finally (IP). In the analysis, it is discovered that negation in sentence-initial position is for force of negation. The analysis also discloses that, although the negation in declaratives is marked in situ in sentence-final position, the negated element can be extraposed for focus. The study concludes that negation in Tiv is characterized by scope and the aspect of left/right periphery marking is typical to edge feature percolation.