Negation and Its Position in Lori Dialect of Kohgilouyeh

Negation is one of the basic concepts in natural languages. In all natural languages, there exist negative statements corresponding to positive sentences. The meaning of negative sentences in these languages is contrary to the meaning of the corresponding positive sentences. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the morphological and syntactic representation of negation and its position in Lori dialect of Kohgilouyeh based on Minimalist Program. In this regard, the main research questions are:1- Is the negative marker in Lori dialect a word or a prefix?
2. Does the negative marker place in different positions in Lori dialect?
Based on the main research questions, the following main hypotheses are expressed:1. Negative marker in Lori dialect is a word.
2. Negative marker places in different positions in Lori dialect.
Although one of the authors is the native speaker of this dialect, the research data was extracted from the speech of five male and female elderly speakers, as well. The research results show that the negative marker in Lori dialect precedes the Tense Phrase/TP as an independent phrase and occurs in different positions in the sentence. In non-attributive and interrogative sentences, the negative marker manifesting in the head position of Negative Phrase (NegP1), first precedes the TP and then it is attracted by the verb. In this position, the relationship between the verb and the head of the negative phrase is realized by Agreement relation. The Negative Phrase2 (NegP2) is another position in which this marker appears in the indicative attributive sentences. In this position, the negative marker is not subject to any movement and remains in its situ position. In addition, in these sentences, the negative marker can also move to the specifier of Focus Phrase/FP. Similarly, the negative marker can occupy the head position of Complementizer Phrase/CP in yes-no question sentences. Moreover, this marker can be used as a prefix before the verb and also locate before the TP as a negative adverb.