Re: "to be" or "not to be"

Scotto:
<<
Can you name a few of the languages that do have the negative copula?
 >>

Sadly, I cannot.  I *know* I've seen these examples, and that
some have come from Africa, and some may have come from
the Caucausas, but it's so long, and you see so much data going
through school...  I'm sure that while I've seen examples that
look like the made-up example I cited, they're probably more
complex as you change tenses, change person, add arguments,
etc.

Eugene:
<<
What language is that, David? I'd like to know. (:
 >>

That was a made-up example (I should probably make a note
of it when I do that); not a natural language, or an actual conlang.
It's an facsimile of natural language data I've seen.

This, however, does look pretty close:

Eugene's data from Korean:
<<
Chingu ga isseoyo.
Friend SUBJ have.POLITE
"I have friends." / "My friend is there."

Chingu ga opseoyo.
Friend SUBJ don't-have.POLITE
"I don't have friends."

Saram eun opseoyo.
People TOPIC don't-have.POLITE
"There are no people (around here)."
 >>

Somewhat similar to Turkish's yok/var that Philip mentioned.
I wonder where one might search for something like this... I
wonder what Payne has to say about negation.

There is some, but not enough about copulae, I'm afraid.  Here
are the relevant examples:

Tagalog
Wala akong pera.  "I don't have any money."
Hindi ko alam.  "I don't know."

These are two different types of negative verbs.  Unfortunately,
these examples aren't glossed (d'oh!).  Perhaps someone familiar
with Tagalog could help us out, and tell us how "I'm not a teacher"
vs. "I am a teacher" works?

Diegeno (Yuman):

?n_ja:-tS ?-a?m-x ?-ma:w
/I-sub. 1sg-go-IRR 1sg-Neg/
"I didn't go."

Payne points out that the main verb is a negative verb (verb final,
and the second verb, "go", is marked with the irrealis suffix,
indicating
that it's subordinate).

Unfortunately in the section on copulae, Payne doesn't use any
negative examples; only positive ones.  At this point, all I can
do is dig through notes, or search almighty Google.  :(

-David
*******************************************************************
"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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