The grammar of negation in bemba.
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Date
2020
Authors
Musonda, Davies Maron
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
Across all the languages, there are two types of negation: morphological and syntactic. The former
refers to negation expressed by a morpheme while the latter is a concept referring to expression of
negation by a lexical item. In principle, Bemba uses morphological negation. The study analyses
the morphemes which express negation in the verbal construction of Standard Bemba, a Bantu
language classified as M42 by Guthrie (1968). The concept of Standard Bemba is predicated on
the idea of a dialect which the government, through the Ministry of General Education, has chosen
as a Regional Official Language taught in schools in the Northern region of Zambia (Jimaima et
al, 2016). According to Ohannessian & Kashoki (1978: 30) Bemba is a Niger-Congo language of
the Central Narrow Bantu branch that is categorised as part of Zone M in Guthrie’s (1948, 1967-
71) classification of Bantu languages. It is spoken in Zambia (mainly in the Northern, Luapula and
Copperbelt provinces) and in the Southern Democratic Republic of Congo by approximately 3.3
million speakers (Lewis, Simons & Fennig 2013). Bemba has several dialects, though there are no
systematic studies on the exact number and the differences between possible dialects. This be the
case as it may, the standard Bemba dialect is spoken in Kasama and Chinsali districts of the
Northern and Muchinga Provinces of Zambia, respectively (Ohannessian & Kashoki, 1978).
The formatives explored are the three basic negative markers; ta-, -sh()- and –i-. This study has
further discussed some special cases of expressing negation such as the use of the predicative
morpheme tee- ‘it is not’, the auxiliary morpheme –kana- ‘refuse’ and negation in various verbal
forms of the irregular verb ‘to be’. It has been indicated that the presence of the negative
morpheme, more often than not, affects the tonal pattern of the entire verb form. Additionally, the
presence or absence of the negative morpheme can determine the presence and/or absence of other
verb morphemes. On the other hand, it has been found that there are a number of parameters which
determine the shape of the negation morpheme among which are; sentence type (absolutive or
relative), occurrence, Tense, Aspect, Mood and grammatical Person. Standard Bemba has two
positions on the verbal template on which negation is expressed. On the general Bantu verbal
template, the slots on either side of the subject marker (SM) are occupied by the negative
morphemes. The study has further postulated that Bemba does not allow double expression of
negation, that is, one verb can take only one negation morpheme. This implies that the position of
the negation morpheme, like all other verbal morphemes, is subject to constraints. The negative
shape –sh()- takes any of the two vowels; -a or –i depending on the tense. In the present tense, it
takes –i- while the vowel –a- is taken in the past and future tenses. The two NEG forms; -i-, and –
sh()- always occur word - internally. The NEG ta- and other non-standard negation morphemes
occur peri-phrastically. The form –i- is almost always applicable to the negation of imperatives. In
the imperatives, the NEG occurs between the SM and the TA. The NEG form –kana- is used with
infinitives and occurs word-internally. The analysis has been conducted from a phonological,
morphological and syntactic point of views within the theoretical framework of Descriptive
linguistics (structuralism) and ‘Principles and Parameters’. These frameworks have helped in the
analysis and discussion of the form, function and position of negation morphemes using the
qualitative approach.
Keywords: Grammar, Negation, pre-prefix, root, functional morpheme, mood, verb, aspect, tense
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