Non-verbal predication in Bashkir and the ways of its negation

Mishchenko D. F. Neglagolnyye predlozheniya bashkirskogo yazyka isposoby vyrazheniya otritsaniya v nikh. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 110.

The article deals with semantic and formal types of non-verbal sentences in Bashkir and negation means used in them. The first half of the article presents results of the study on correlation of formal types of sentences and their semantics, as well as structural differences of the sentences of one formal type depending on specific grammatical meanings expressed in them. Four formal types of non-verbal predications should be distinguished in Bashkir. When referring to the Past, a verbal strategy (form of the verb bul- ‘be’) can be used along with a non-verbal strategy (copulas). When referring to the Future, the latter is the only possible strategy. In the second half of the article, the author discusses the rules of using negation means in sentences of different types. In general, three means are used there: copulas juq and tügel and suffix of the standard negation -ma in a form of the verb bul- ‘be’. There are grammatical contexts where only one of the strategies is possible, either verbal (negative form of bul-), or non-verbal (copula juq or tügel). When referring to the Past, both strategies often seem to be equal, but in the sentences of several semantic types, the choice of one of them is determined by such factors as referential status of the object or semantic type of negation. The distribution of negative copulas depends to a large extent on the semantic/formal type of the sentence they are used in, sometimes, however, they compete with each other within the same sentence type. In this case, the choice is determined by the presence or absence of the scalar meaning and focus of the speaker’s attention A separate problem discussed in the article is negation means used in the sentences with indirect evidential or mirative component of semantics.