Tags · Structure
Suppletion
Cells of one paradigm filled by unrelated stems, as in Turkish var and yok.
Topics with this tag
Pattern
How do languages say “I don’t have X”?
To express absence of possession, languages either negate a HAVE-verb, add a negative determiner to the object, or reframe the situation as one of non-existence or absence — with the possessor as topic, location, or dative.
ExistencePossessionNegationSuppletion +2
Non-possession →
Pathway
How does a word for “there is no” turn into plain “not”?
A dedicated negative existential (“there is no X”) arises beside the ordinary negator, then spreads from existential sentences into verbal negation until it becomes the standard negator itself. Croft distinguishes six synchronic types — A, A~B, B, B~C, C, C~A — and the languages below sit at different points along the drift.
ExistenceNegationSuppletionGrammaticalization +2
The Negative Existential Cycle →