Negative Markers in Lamaholot, Eastern Flores – Indonesia: The Case of Kiwangona Dialect

Abstract

This paper aims at answering two following questions: (1). What are the types of negative markers in Kiwangona dialects of the Lamaholot based on Mosel and Spriggs’ negation patterns ? ; (2). To what extent do negative markers in the Kiwangona dialect fill the stages in Jespersen Cycle? This research is qualitative in nature. The data were obtained from a two-week field trip to Bayunta’a village of Ile Boleng subdistrict on Adonara island. Data were collected through a series of elicitation processes and note-taking activities from five informants. The data were then analyzed by using Mosel and Spriggs’s theory of negation patterns (1999) as well as the stages of the Jespersen Cycle (1917). Results show that (1) negative markers in Kiwangona fill all five kinds of negative patterns hypothesized by Mosel and Spriggs. Second, the most significant finding is that due to historical contact with a non-Austronesian language, Kiwangona as a single dialect fills all three stages of the Jespersen Cycle compared to Fricke's assessment on negative markers in Flores-Lembata languages. Furthermore, certain lexico-grammatical changes that appeared in Kiwangona negative clauses are mainly due to grammaticalization and a higher degree of negators' movability. Dealing with the results above, the Kiwangona dialect may be considered as a more complex Lamaholot dialect in terms of negation patterns compared to others. Therefore, more research should be carried out on many other undocumented dialects in order to end up with a clearer situation of the negation in Lamaholot dialects.