Negative polyverbal constructions in the Altai language

This article aims to perform a systematic description of negative polyverbal constructions of modaltemporalaspectual semantics of the Altai language. 469 tokens were selected from the Altai fiction as the material for this study. The tokens were processed using the methods of observation and linguistic description, techniques of contextual and component analysis and simple instruments of descriptive statistics. As a result, the study demonstrated the major ways of expressing negation and the specifics of negation in polyverbal analytical constructions including three or more verbal components: sense verb and two auxiliary verbs expressing duration, nonduration or modal meaning. Three structural patterns of negative polyverbal analytical structures were identified: 1) with the negative form of the significant component: Tv=NEG.CV + VAUX=TEMP/ MOD=PERS; 2) with the negative form of the auxiliary component where the significant component takes one of the adverbial forms: Tv=NEG.CV+VAUX=CV/PP+VAUX=TEMP/MOD=PERS; 3) with the negative form of the final component: Tv=CV+VAUX=PP+ VAUX=NEG.IMP. The obtained results show that behind each structural type, there are semantic differences that manifest themselves not only in the set of auxiliary verbs but also in the possibilities of grammatical variation of each component of the pattern.