Here the negation indicates that the sentence was not
reported. But it does not negate the main event or action. Only the first
reportive inflexion can take a negative inflexion. Consider
(237)
/karasolay
m/
`it is not true that someone reported that it rained’
(238)
/h1cimymlay
m2/
`it is not true that I said that I1
am not sleepy2’
(3)
Syncretic Forms :
Negation is coalesced with other
inflexions in two instances.
(a)
While negating the imperative
mood, the syncretic form is /-yį/. It can be analyzed as a combination of
two morphemes /-nį/ which is the imperative inflexion and the negative
inflexion. Consider the sentence
(238a)
/tap1
thįyį2/
`don’t eat2
food1’
which is the result of the
application of a negative transformation to an imperative sentence.
TNeg [tapthįnį-Neg]
(b)
The same is true with the
negation of the probabilitative mood where changing the tone one the mood
inflexion indicates negation.
(238b)
/h1
taphragam2 hanįbōm3/
`I1 shall probably
not come3 to Taphragam2’
In this sentence, the tone on the
morpheme -bom changes from rising to rising-falling.
m/
1
cimy
1
thįyį2/
