Negative Pronouns in Finnic Languages (Based on Materials from the Gospel Translations)

The article deals with the subset of indefinite pronouns which are often denoted in the literature as negative pronouns in six Finnic languages (Estonian, Finnish, North and Livvi Karelian, Seto and Veps). The data for the study comes from the translations of the Gospel texts into those languages. Negative pronouns are understood as such indefinite pronouns which are used primarily in the scope of negation and in some related contexts (downward-entailing or non-veridical). The distribution of negative pronouns in the text is described. It is shown that different types of negative pronouns are used in these languages. Finnish and North Karelian have a series of negative pronouns formed with the additive operator -kaan (-kana in North Karelian), which is used primarily in negative contexts. It is argued that these pronouns should be analyzed as strong Negative Polarity Items because they could occur in the contexts where an overt marker of negation is not present, such as the scope of adversative predicates, embedded clause of the negated matrix predicate or polar questions. Livvi Karelian and Veps employ pronouns with the prefix ni- borrowed from Russian. These pronouns behave like Negative Concord Items because they occur only in the presence of the clausemate sentential negation marker. Some differences in the distribution of these items are attested. Finally, Seto and Estonian do not have any special series of negative pronouns. Instead, the -gi pronouns, which have a very broad distribution, are used in these contexts. In Estonian, these can be modified by the marker of constituent negation mitte.