Negation and OV order in Late Middle English

Bibliographic Data

ID10140282
AuthorsRichard Ingham (0000-0001-7964-413X, University of Reading, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume36
Issue1
Pages13-38
Publication date2000-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2267 • E-ISSN: 1469-7742
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022226799007963
OpenAlexW2159840471
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited8

Optional OV order in Later Middle English (LME) has given rise to conflicting theoretical accounts. Earlier analyses postulating movement to AgrOP or alternative base orders are found to be inadequate to deal with the occurrence of OV in non-literary LME; in a large database of 15th century private familial correspondence, residual OV order is found to have been productive only with negated objects. Multiple subject constructions with there expletives showed the same restriction. These phenomena are accounted for by postulating overt Neg Movement (Haegeman 1995) as a permitted option in LME. In this framework, it is argued that LME showed a mixed typology having both Neg movement and a null Neg operator. LME had three ways of satisfying the NEG Criterion (Haegeman 1995): Merge not in Spec NegP, coindex [OP] i ... [XP(Neg)] i , and Move XP(Neg) to Spec NegP. Modern English has only the first two. The distribution in this period of negative concord with not is shown to support our analysis

Linguistics · Merge (version control · Negation · Old English · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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