International Summer School on
Language Documentation and Description

Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden

5 July - 17 July 2010

Negation Systems

This course is an introduction to the principles and practices of describing negation systems with an emphasis on how negation can be studied from a typological perspective. Typology concerns the cross-linguistic comparison of languages with a view to uncover and explain (the limits on) systematic variation and language universals. This course therefore approaches the documentation and description of negation from a cross-linguistic perspective and explores structural and semantic diversity in the expression of this apparently universal category. More specifically, we will address issues such as What are the fundamental semantic properties of negation? How is the category marked? When is it used? and How should negation be approached in a language documentation project? At the conclusion of the course, students will be familiar with some of the main trends in the typology of negation over the last century and will be aware of some of the methodological issues that shape the way typologists draw conclusions about language. Participants will be knowledgeable about the key typological works on negation and will have acquired some of the skills that are necessary to investigate, document, and describe the negation system of a language.

NB. This is an advanced level course. Ideally, students will already have some exposure to both typology and language documentation and description methodology.