Negation in Nanti: Syntactic evidence for head and dependent negators

Abstract

In this paper we argue that, despite a lack of morphological markers on its negators, Nanti shows syntactic evidence for two negation strategies in the main clause: head negation and modifier negation. The head negator motivates the construction of a hierarchy of forms, and the interaction of the main clause negators motivates an additional head feature. We then extend the analysis to a previously unconsidered negator in the language. Finally, our analysis is implemented and tested in a grammar based on the LinGO Grammar Matrix.