NON STANDARD NEGATION IN ẸDO

ABSTRACT

This study presents and examines standard and non-standard negation and how it is manifested in Ẹdo language. Non standard negations are negative strategies which are not declarative. There are four types of negative markers in Ẹdo, the ‘í’, ‘ghá,‘ghí’ and ‘má’ ́ negative markers. To my best of knowledge, non-standard negation has not been described in Ẹdo. Miestamo (2005) has worked on standard negation and following the knowledge of his work, standard negation is used to negate declarative constructions. Following Ọmọruyi (1989) study on Negation in Ẹdo, he used three negative markers to negate different constructions which are not just declarative but are also non declaratives. With the examples Ọmọruyi (1989) gave using the negative marker ‘í’ which occurs immediately after the subject position and is used to indicate present tense negation and also a negative marker which rejects an action or state which is considered true all the time. ‘Ghẹ́’ is used in imperative sentences that do not have objects. It is a ‘prohibition morpheme’ because it occurs when an addressee is commanded or requested not to perform the action expressed by the verb it preceeds. ‘Má’is used to indicate past tense negation and occurs immediately after the subject position and comes before the main verb.