Pragmatic differentiation of negative markers in the early stages of Jespersen’s cycle in North Germanic
Abstrak
AbstractThis article investigates the pragmatic function of new negative markers during incipient renewal of negation in ‘Jespersen’s cycle’. We outline a typology of these markers, suggesting a pathway by which they begin as specialized for use with discourse-old propositions and later expand to inferred propositions before finally becoming possible with discourse-new propositions. This framework is applied to an overlooked case of Jespersen’s cycle in North Germanic: replacement of early Norwegianei(gi) “not” byekki(originally “nothing”) from 1250 to 1550. We document a sharp rise in frequency ofekkiaround 1425, suggesting that, until then,ekkihad been restricted to negating discourse-old propositions. Once this constraint was lifted,ei(gi) andekkicompeted directly, resulting in rapid replacement ofei(gi) byekki. This typologically unusual direct replacement of a negator with no intervening doubling stage can be attributed to the new negator’s origin as a negative indefinite and the lack of negative concord in early Norwegian.
Penulis (2)
Tam Blaxter
David Willis
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2018
- Bahasa
- en
- Total Sitasi
- 5×
- Sumber Database
- CrossRef
- DOI
- 10.1075/dia.16040.bla
- Akses
- Terbatas