The Semantics of Kọ́-Negative Constructions in Yoruba

Abstract

The presumption in relevant literature is that kọ́ is a nominal constituent negation marker in Yoruba. This position is problematic in two ways: first, it runs contrary to the generally known concept of negation as a denial of a proposition; and second, insights from the semantic and syntactic structure of kọ́-negation constructions show that the scope of kọ́ in that particular context is not just the focused constituent that linearly precedes it, but the totality of the focus construction that serves as its subcategorized complement. This paper investigates the semantics of kọ́-negation constructions in Yoruba via their entailments and presuppositions to examine what they teach about the overall logical interpretations of such constructions. Findings show that kọ́-constructions in the language embed, entail, and presuppose not just the focused item but the simple proposition from which the focused item is extracted. The paper concludes that what is negated in Yoruba kọ́-negative constructions are not just the focused items but the entire proposition from which the focused items are extracted.