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Like other Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken in the Maluku Islands, Taba uses different particles to negate declarative and imperative clauses;^[1] declaratives are negated using te, while imperatives are negated using oik.^[2] In both cases the negative particles are clause-final, a placement which is posited to be the result of contact with non-Austronesian Papuan languages.^[3]

Declarative clauses are negated using the particle te, which follows all other elements of the clause except for modal and aspectual particles (these are discussed below).^[4] Examples (15a) and (15b) show negation of an Actor intransitive clause, while (16a) and (16b) give negation of a non-Actor bivalent clause (i.e. a clause with two Undergoer arguments); te has the same clause-final placement regardless of the clause structure.

Negation of complex sentences can be ambiguous — see example (17), where te can operate on either just the complement clause khan 'I'm going' or to the whole clause complex kalusa khan 'I said I'm going':^[5]

Negative existential clauses^[5]

te can serve as the predicator of a negative existential clause, with no verb required. It can occur immediately following the noun phrase that refers to whatever is being asserted as non-existent, as in (18):

However, a discourse marker is generally interposed between the noun phrase and te. This marker expresses something about how the non-existence of the noun phrase's referent relates to the discourse context, or alternatively indicates the speaker's attitude towards the proposition.^[5] In (19), the discourse marker mai (glossed as 'but') is used to indicate that the non-existence of tea, sugar and coffee in the household described by the speaker is counter to one's expectations that a normal household would have these items:

Complex negative modal / aspectual particles^[6]

Taba has three complex negative particles which, in addition to negation, express mood or aspect; these are formed by the modal and aspectual particles attaching onto te as clitics. The three particles are tedo (realis negative), tehu (continuative negative), and tesu (potential negative).

tedo (realis negative)^[7]

tedo is a compound of te and the realis mood marker do, and expresses a more emphatic negation than plain te. In (20), it is used to emphasize the absolute nature of the prohibition against making alcohol in the Muslim community of the speaker:

tehu (continuative negative)^[8]

tehu is a compound of te and the continuous aspect marker hu, and can be roughly translated as 'not up to the relevant point in time': this may be either the time of utterance (i.e. 'not yet', 'still not'), or some other time relevant to the context of the utterance, as in (21). Unlike the potential negative tesu, tehu does not express any expectations about the likelihood of the negated event or state occurring in the future.

tehu also often appears at the end of the first clause in a sequence of clauses, indicating whatever is referred to by the first clause has not still occurred by the time of the event(s) or state(s) referred to by the following clauses.

tesu (potential negative)^[9]

tesu is formed by suffixing -su, expressing the potential mood, to te. Although tesu is similar to tehu in that it encodes the meaning 'not up to the relevant point in time', it also expresses an expectation that the event referred to will occur in the future: this expectation is made explicit in the free translation of (23).

tesu shares with tehu the ability to be used at the end of the first clause in a sequence of clauses, and also carries a similar meaning of incompletion; in addition, it encodes the expectation that the event referred to by the first clause should have happened by the event(s) of the following clauses. This expectation does not need to have actually been fulfilled; the breakfast that was expected to be cooked in the first clause of (24) was, in reality, never cooked due to the ensuing eruption.

Unlike the modal and aspectual markers which are used to form the other complex negative particles, su is not attested as a free morpheme elsewhere; however, it is likely related to the optional final -s of the modal verb -ahate(s) 'to be unable', which appears to be derived historically from te having fused onto the verb -ahan 'to be able'.^[10] When used with a final -s, as in (25b) compared with (25a), this modal verb encodes the same meanings expressed by tesu:

Imperative clauses are negated using the admonitive particle oik. This particle appears to be derived from a verb oik 'to leave something behind'; however, this verb requires Actor cross-referencing, whereas the particle is never cross-referenced.^[11] Bowden (2001) posits that the imperative use of oik has developed from the use of the independent verb in serial verb constructions, with the morphological elements being lost in the process of grammaticalization.^[12] The particle is shown in (26), while the verbal use (with cross-referencing) is shown in (27):

Yes-no (polar) questions can be posed with either positive or negative polarity; positive polarity questions operate in much the same way as in English, while negative polarity questions, which are formed using forms of the negative marker te as question tags, work in a different manner.^[13] An example of a positive polarity question is given below in (28a), while (28b) shows a negative polarity question:

The answers to the positive polarity may be either Jou/Ole (Yes, I do smoke) or Te (No, I don't smoke); when responding to the negative polarity question, the answers are either Jou/Ole (Yes, I do not smoke), Te (No, I do smoke).^[13]

• Bowden, John (2001). Taba: description of a South Halmahera language. Pacific Linguistics. Vol. 521. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-521. ISBN 0858835177.
• Florey, Margaret (2010). "Negation in Moluccan languages". In Ewing, Michael C.; Klamer, Marian (eds.). East Nusantara: Typological and areal analyses. Vol. 618. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. pp. 227–250. doi:10.15144/PL-618. ISBN 9780858836105.
• Reesink, Ger P. (2002). "Clause-final negation: structure and interpretation". Functions of Language. 9(2): 239–268. doi:10.1075/fol.9.2.06ree.