User:SirSeagull/sandbox

Negation
The information presented in this section is based on Crowley, 1982:140-142.

Negation in Paamese is marked by the prefix -ro, which is added between subject markers and the root form of the verb, affirmative constructions are marked by the absence of a morpheme in this position. Semantically, the negative construction can be used with both realis and irrealis verbs, the former is used to express that the speaker denies the fact that an event is real and the latter expresses that the speaker does not expect the event to become real. Because of this, the negative in Paamese is incompatible with imperative, prohibitive and potential moods. This is due to the fact that these moods, despite being irrealis, do not express any form of expectation that the event will become real from the speaker. There are two distinct constructions of negation: the partitive and the non-partitive. These constructions differ in that the partitive takes the partitive suffix -tei­ obligatorily, while non-partitive constructions only take this suffix optionally.

Partitive Negative
The partitive negative is the most common form of negation in everyday speech. It is used as the negative forms of:

Transitive verbs with non-generic objects
Kai rongadei veta 3SG 3SG.real.neg.eat.part breadfruit 'He didn't eat the breadfruit

The use of the partitive in these examples expresses that a non-generic object is entirely unaffected by an event, rather than being only partially unaffected (the example above describes none of the breadfruit being eaten at all, as opposed to only some remaining uneaten).

Any Intransitive verbs
Inau naromesaitei 1SG 1SG.real.neg.sick.part ‘I am not sick’

Using the partitive to express intransitive verbs acts to express that the state or event is completely unachieved rather than being partially instead of only being partially achieved.

Non-Partitive Negative The non-partitive negative is used to as a negator of transitive verbs with generic objects such as:

Letau kail aropipile pi   woman PL 3PL.real.neg.REdup.play marbles ‘Women never play marbles’

Lohon kail naromumuas kail child PL 1SG.real.neg.REdup.hit 3PL ‘I never hit children’

The above examples are also able to be expressed using the partitive negative construction as seen in the below example:

Lohon kail naromumuastei kail child PL 1SG.real.neg.REdup.hit.part 3PL ‘I never hit children’

However, this construction has no apparent change in meaning to non-partitive constructions.

All examples are taken from Crowley, 1982, pp. 140-141.