Negation in Uralic languages

The Uralic language family is known for its negative auxiliary verbs, but the negation systems of the Uralic languages are interesting in many other ways as well. All types of negative markers -- negative verbs, particles, affixes -- are found, and negation interacts in intricate ways with phenomena such as focus, quantifiers, word order, case marking, tense, mood and aspect. These issues have not been systematically explored in the Uralic languages.

     We are organizing events to bring together scholars working on negation in Uralic languages and/or in a typological perspective. The goal is to reach a more systematic and typologically informed picture of negation in Uralic and to publish the results of our study in a volume. We discuss any aspects of negation in Uralic languages. The main focus is on the description and analysis of the systems of negation in these languages, especially from a typological perspective, but we are open to all theoretical approaches. We have encouraged the contributors to the volume to take one of the following viewpoints:

• The description/analysis of the system of negation in one (or more) Uralic languages
• The description/analysis of a particular negation-related phenomenon (e.g. negation of a specific clause type, negative polarity, interaction between negation and case/TAM etc.) in several Uralic languages or across the whole Uralic family.
• Typology (or other theoretical approaches) and Uralic languages: what the Uralic data can contribute to our understanding of negation or what typology (or other theoretical approaches) can contribute to our understanding of negation in Uralic. 

Our events take place as symposia or satellites of other Uralic conferences, or independently. The front page of this workspace presents the information on the upcoming or most recent event. Here are the links to the previous ones: Negation in Uralic Languages, the 11th International Congress of Finno-Ugric Studies (CIFU11) in Piliscsaba, Hungary, August 9-14, 2010 (abstracts, programme); Workshop on negation, Central European university, Department of Cognitive Science, April 21, 2011. The recent event:

Negation in Uralic Languages

Workshop at Stockholm University, Department of Linguistics

November 24-25, 2011

The earlier workshops have discussed the general idea behind the book project and the questionnaire on which the language-specific chapters are to be based. The forthcoming workshop, taking place after the deadline of the first versions of the chapters, will provide the opportunity to discuss work that is already at an advanced stage. We will be able to address specific problems encountered in the description of Uralic negation systems, issues arising from the questionnaire and how the questionnaire could still be improved, the question how the chapters relate to each other and how to make the book into a unified whole, etc. All contributors to the volume are invited to participate and present their work. A few papers by people working on negation in non-Uralic languages in Stockholm will also be included in the programme.

Thursday, 24.11.2011  (Room C307)

9.15–9.30           Opening  

9.30–10.00          Inaba, Nobufumi  and Rogier Blokland: Negation in Southern Saami

10.00–10.30        Miestamo, Matti and Eino Koponen: Negation in Skolt Saami  

10:30h–11:00h Coffee break

11.00–11.30       Metslang, Helle, Karl Pajusalu, and Tiit-Rein Viitso: Negation in Livonian

11.30–12.00       Vilkuna, Maria: Negation in Finnish

12.00–12.30       Rozhanskiy, Fedor and Elena Markus: Negation in Votic

12:30h–14:00h Lunch break

14.00–14.30       Filtchenko, Andrey: Negation in Khanty

14.30–15.00       Sipőcz, Katalin: Negation in Mansi  

15.00–15.30       Kiefer, Ferenc: The negative suffix in Hungarian  

15:30h–16:00h Coffee break

16.00–16.30       Börstell, Calle: Negation in Swedish Sign Language

16.30–17.00       Agbetsoamedo, Yvonne: Negation in Seele  

17.00–17.30       Vafaiean, Ghazaleh: Negation in Mazandaran

17.30–18.00       Brosig, Benjamin: Negative markers in Mongolian

Friday, 25.11.2011  (Room C307)

9.00–9.30           Hamari, Arja: Negation in Komi-Zyrian

9.30–10.00         Aasmäe, Niina and Arja Hamari: Negation in Mordvin

10.00–10.30       Gusev, Valentin: Negation in Nganasan

 10:30h–11:00h Coffee break

11.00–11.30       Leisiö, Larisa: Admonitive sense in Nganasan

11.30–12.00       Wagner-Nagy, Beáta: Negation in Northern Selkup 

12.00–12.30       Mus, Nikolett: Negation in Tundra Nenets  

12:30h–14:00h Lunch break

14.00–14.30       Siegl, Florian: Negation in Forest Enets

14.30–15.00       Manzelli, Gianguido: Mutual influences in negative patterns between Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages

15.00–15.30       van Alsenoy, Lauren and Johan van der Auwera: Mapping Finno-Ugric indefinites

15:30h–16:00h Coffee break

16.00–16.30       di Garbo, Francesca: Preventive constructions
16.30–17.00       Veselinova, Ljuba and Hedvig Skirgård: Negation strategies in non-verbal and existential sentences in the Uralic languages

17:00h–17:30       Closing discussion

Abstracts (mainly available for presentations other than those describing the negation system of a Uralic language based on our questionnaire). The preliminary papers of the volume can be accessed by those who are contributing to the volume from this page as well. Niina Aasmäe-Arja Hamari - Svetlana Edygarova - Andrej Filchenko - Valentin Gusev - Arja Hamari - Katalin É. Kiss - Ferenc Kiefer - Gianguido Manzelli - Fedor Rozhanskij-Elena Markus - Nikolett Mus - Florian Siegl - Sachiko Sosa - Anne Tamm - Maria Vilkuna - Beáta Wagner-Nagy

The venue of the workshop is the Stockholm University campus at Frescati (see map). More information on the Department of linguistics can be found here.

Several hotels reasonably close to the conference venue can be found at www.booking.com. Possible alternatives are, e.g., Rex Hotel, Elite Hotel Arcadia, Crystal Plaza Hotel, Gustav Vasa Hotel, and Pensionat Oden. The participants who have not applied for funding from the organizers are requested to make their hotel reservations themselves.

Organizers:

• Matti Miestamo <matti.miestamo_AT_ling.su.se>
• Anne Tamm <TammA_AT_ceu.hu>
• Beáta Wagner-Nagy <beata.wagner-nagy_AT_uni-hamburg.de>