The World Atlas of Language Structures Online

2 Responses to “Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation”

1. Toby Keogh Says:
   November 29th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

   This map could probably be made a little more clear by specifying what sort of “mixed” behavior the different mixed languages have. The example shows Spanish as being mixed in the sense that some or its sentences require double negatives while others do not. In English however, double negatives are never allowed, but it is still mixed in the sense that one can either say “I saw nothing” or “I didn’t see anything”. (At least, this is what I’m guessing. – If this isn’t what’s meant by English being a mixed language, then I fail to understand what exactly that means.) Because of this then, English and Spanish are mixed in different ways and should probably be represented by two different colors. — I also have to wonder now, are there any languages that use such a construction as “Anybody didn’t come”?

2. Martin Haspelmath Says:
   November 30th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

   Yes, of course, one could always make further distinctions. But it’s true that “mixed” is a particularly unilluminating category.
   Yes, there are many languages that use constructions “such as” ‘Anybody didn’t come’, i.e. constructions where the indefinite is in subject position. For example, many English dialects allow something like “Nobody didn’t come”. Now one might say that “anybody” and “nobody” are different kinds of entities, but in typological terms, that’s difficult. Languages have all kinds of indefinites, and “anybody-type” vs. “nobody-type” is not a good typological categorization.

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