Negation in Lekuwa (C27)

This paper investigates sentential negation in Lekuwa within the framework of Principles and Parameters developed by Noam Chomsky in the 1980's [1, 2, 3]. Sentential negation is expressed by the negative markers te, ka, lawi, o-tano and the negative indefinite o moto. The base and surface position of te, ka and lawi is post-verbal, while that of otano and o moto is preverbal. It is demonstrated that negation in Lekuwa is a functional head which projects a NegP. Its head status is due to the fact that it selects a non-finite VP as complement, triggers the leftward movement of the object NP, and thus satisfies the ECP, and requires the use of a dummy auxiliary to carry T(ense) inflection like in English. The proof of the presence of NegP in Lekuwa brings further evidence to the existence of a Universal Grammar