Negative concord and the loss of the negative particle ne in Late Middle English
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Date
2006
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
The presence of Negative Concord (NC) and the sentential negative particle ne is investigated in
northern, southern, and mixed later Middle English prose texts from around 1400. The typology
of negation proposed in Rowlett (1998) is taken as the basis for an examination of whether the
loss of an overt Nego head element is associated with the loss of NC. It is found that NC, though
almost categorical in southern varieties, was showing signs of weakening in northern/northerninfluenced
texts. In these texts, the decline of NC was usually associated with the absence of ne.
However, the converse relationship was not supported. It appears that loss of ne did not exert a
direct influence on the grammar of NC in English, but that NC co-existed with the absence of a
Neg head for a substantial period of time. This finding of a temporal disjunction is discussed in
relation to the notion of cluster effects in parametrised syntax.
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Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 42 (2006), pp. 77-97
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0081-6272