Negation has interested many a linguist, there are books and papers on this subject, ranging from world-wide cross-linguistic typologies to small highly specific in-depth case studies. However,...Show moreNegation has interested many a linguist, there are books and papers on this subject, ranging from world-wide cross-linguistic typologies to small highly specific in-depth case studies. However, some parts of the world are as yet under-explored on the subject of negation. This thesis aims to fill in a few of those blanks and hopes to contribute to our understanding of non-standard negation in the indigenous languages of South America. The main focus lies on non-standard negation, such as negative existentials, prohibitives and privatives, and how these relate to the standard negation as expressed in the respective languages. These types of non-standard negation have not yet been fully investigated in South American languages and this study aims to reveal particular areas in which more research should be done. The study is based on a sample of 26 languages from different language families and geographical areas within South America. The approach to the topic is of a typological nature and focuses on synchronic data. The different types of negation can be diachronically related, however. Therefore, this study serves as a foundation for follow-up research examining the diachronic processes of negation in these language families.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
2023-01-31T00:00:00Z
All Tukanoan languages have gender markers and classifiers, and both can be reconstructed to the proto-language to some degree. In this thesis, I provide a reconstruction of the development of the...Show moreAll Tukanoan languages have gender markers and classifiers, and both can be reconstructed to the proto-language to some degree. In this thesis, I provide a reconstruction of the development of the classifier system in the Tukanoan family, where I argue that it developed out of the older gender system morpho-syntactically, but that many of the synchronically found classifiers can morphologically be analysed as grammaticalized nouns. My arguments for this, as elaborated in this thesis, are as follows: i) all Tukanoan languages have similar gender markers which can probably be reconstructed for Proto-Tukanoan (Chacon 2021; in prep.); ii) the gender markers seem to have undergone grammaticalization at an early stage in the family; iii) many classifiers in the family are language-internal developments or can only be reconstructed for a sub-branch; iv) a few classifiers are widely found in the family and can be reconstructed for the proto-language, but these seem to be developments of either Proto-Tukanoan gender markers or originally complex forms. I analyse these complex forms as consisting of a gender marker in combination with some other marker. I furthermore provide an analysis of the development of the Proto-Tukanoan gender system, based on Chacon (2021; in prep), where I suggest that some of its morphological material may indicate borrowings from an Arawakan source. Lastly, by contributing to the reconstruction of the Proto-Tukanoan classifier system, this thesis may contribute to a reconstruction of classifiers in the wider area, as classifiers are a pervasive feature in non-Tukanoan languages as well, where the relatively gender-like morpho-syntactic characteristics of classifiers have been the subject of much discussion (e.g. Payne 1987; Aikhenvald 2000a, 10; Grinevald 2000, 81-82, 87).Show less
This thesis analyses the relationship between the indigenous Huaorani Tribe, the Ecuadorian Government and Oil Multinationals in the protected the Yasuni National Park. It answers what factors have...Show moreThis thesis analyses the relationship between the indigenous Huaorani Tribe, the Ecuadorian Government and Oil Multinationals in the protected the Yasuni National Park. It answers what factors have contributed to the Huaorani tribe being the first indigenous tribe winning the lawsuit against the Ecuadorian Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of the Environment in 2019, against tendering parts of the Yasuni National Park for oil extraction.Show less
This paper describes the transitions of the last four decades in the Pampa region in Argentina, which happened through international interference. It gives a coherent explanation on how...Show moreThis paper describes the transitions of the last four decades in the Pampa region in Argentina, which happened through international interference. It gives a coherent explanation on how multinational corporations based in other countries than Argentina, have grown in the last couple of decades, and expanded their power in the rural Pampas, and how this affected the personal and financial situations in the region.Show less
