Zaparoan negation revisited (original) (raw)

The paper revisits negation in the Zaparoan languages Arabela, Iquito and Zaparo. For Iquito, which exhibits single, double as well as triple negation, we adopt a Jespersen Cycle perspective and find it to have explanatory force. For Zaparo and Arabela another Cycle hypothesis proves enlightening, i.e., the Negative Existential Cycle. We hypothesize that both in Iquito and Zaparo there is a diachronic link between the formal expression of negation and of the concept for ‘leave’/‘go’. We addressed the internal subclassification of the Zaparoan languages, showing that, at least for the structural feature of negation, the position of Arabela is closer to Zaparo than to Iquito.