The early absence of the French negative marker ne

Rowlett, PA 2011, 'The early absence of the French negative marker ne' , in: The Evolution of Negation : Beyond the Jespersen Cycle , Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] (235) , De Gruyter, pp. 209-220.

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Abstract

Publisher's description:
Why do grammars change? The cycle of negation proposed by Jespersen is crucially linked to the status of items and phrases. The definition of criteria establishing when a polarity item becomes a negative element, and the identification of the role of phrases for the evolution of negation are the two objectives pursued by the contributions to this volume.

The contributions look at the emergence of negative items, and their relation within a given sentence, with particular reference to English and French. The comparative perspective supports the documentation of the fine-grained steps that shed light on the factors that (i) determine change and those that (ii) accompany actuation, which are considered through a dialogue between functionalist and formalist approaches. By looking at the place of negation in the architecture of the sentence, they take up the debate as to the relevance of phrasal projections and consider the role of features. Focusing on the make-up of individual items makes it possible to re-conceptualise the Jespersen cycle as the apparent result of the documented evolution patterns of individual (series of) items. This novel perspective is solidly grounded on an extensive use of the complete, up to date bibliography, and will contribute to shape future research.

Item Type:	Book Section
Editors:	Larrivée, P and Ingham, R
Themes:	Subjects / Themes > P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics Memory, Text and Place
Schools:	Schools > School of Humanities, Languages & Social Sciences > Centre for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Journal or Publication Title:	The Evolution of Negation
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Refereed:	No
Series Name:	Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]
ISBN:	9783110238600
Depositing User:	Professor Paul Rowlett
Date Deposited:	24 Mar 2010 09:45
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2022 09:17
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/5608

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