Multiple Poll: 1-Word Expressions of Nothingness

Does your language have 1-word expressions of negation in these parts of speech ?


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lexico

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Multiple Poll: Tick each line that correctly describes your language.

Let's say all languages have at least the five cadinal parts of speech; nouns (N), verbs (V), adjectives (Adj), adverbs (Adv), and conjunctions (Conj). How does your mother tongue (or one of your native languages) express negation and nothingness in one words ?

English has the following nouns to express non-existence; nothing, none; verb expressing non-existence, 'lack, miss,' negating adjective 'no,' the negating adverbs 'not, never,' and the negating conjunction 'nor' and 'neither..nor.' Hence English 1-word expressions of negation can be expressed as the following.

N+ V+ Adj+ Adv+ Conj+

As for Chinese, noun ??, verb ??, adjective ??, adverb 不, ??, ??, ??, but no conjunction to express negation.

N+ V+ Adj+ Adv+ Conj-

As for Korean, there is no noun of non-existence, there is a verb 'obsta,' there is no adjective of negation, there is an adverb of negation 'an, ani,' but no negative conjunction.

N- V+ Adj- Adv+ Conj-

Here are some samples involving negation and nothingness.
den4 said:
I know nothing...except the answer is 42. You know more than I do.
den4 said:
I find it hard to maintain not knowing anything, but it is an acquired skill set.
Void said:
Den4-san claims that he knows nothing. Isn`t it the same as "he does not know anything"?
In interrogative sentence anything stands for everything.
But to say so one at least should know what 'everything' and 'nothing' are.
 
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Chinese, Japanese, and other languages, please ?

Sure, Glenn be my guest. I just hope the remaining Chinese to be verified, and then to learn about some other languages, too. It strikes me as odd that Korean lacks so many 1-word forms of negation and non-existence. I would like to know how other languages deal with these things. Doesn't it sound funny, "My language does not have 'nothing.'' ? When spoken, without the punctuations, I'm almost tempted to correct it by saying "My language doesn't have anything" instead. :D
 
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English has the following nouns to express non-existence; nothing, none; verb expressing negative eixtence lack, miss; negating adjective 'no,' and the negating adverbs 'not, never,' and the negating conjunction 'nor' and 'neither..nor.' Hence English 1-word expressions of negation can be expressed as the following.
If 'neither...nor/'either or'' is considered as as a single word, there actually is a very similar construction in Japanese : dochira mo...(mo)...nai (de nai). It just isn't as strict given that 'mo' is 'also' in an affirmative sense depending on the verb. Kind of similar to the 'anything' 'nothing' conundrum of English. :p There are negative conjugations for some adjectives, adverbs and of course as nouns and verbs.
 
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I think most if not all Romance and Germanic languages are like English : N+ V+ Adj+ Adv+ Conj+

In French:
- noun : neant, vide, inexistence, lacune, defience, manque, absence, deprivation...
- verb : manquer
- adjective : rien, vide, inexistant, manquant, non-
- adverb : pas, jamais, rien, non-, ne pas...
- conjunction : ni... ni, non plus

In English:

- noun : nothingness, nihility, nullity, vacuum, void, none, inexistence, lack, deficiency, absence, deprivation, none, nil, naught, zilch...
- verb : lack, miss
- adjective : no, not, nothing, void, lacking, missing, non-
- adverb : not, never, nothing, no
- conjuction : neither...nor
 
lexico said:
As for Chinese, noun ??, verb ??, adjective ??, adverb 不, ??, ??, ??, but no conjunction to express negation.
??:N, V, Adv, Pron, Conj
Each word has many meanings and functions.
??,??:N, V, Adj, Adv
?R: N, V, Adj
.......
There should be more, but I can't think of them now. :relief:
 

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