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Agnes Jäger

Negation in Old High German

The aim of this paper is to give a syntactic analysis of sentential negation in the history of German with special emphasis on Old High German. This analysis attributes the main changes in the syntax of negation not to a change in syntactic structure but to changes in the lexical filling of the head and specifier of NegP. In addition, the more specific question of negative indefinites and negative concord (NC) in Old High German is discussed. It is argued that negative indefinites should be analysed as semantically non-negative but simply formally neg-marked. It is assumed that there is no obligatory movement of n-indefinites to SpecNegP, neither overtly nor covertly.

Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0721-9067
Volume: 24, 11/2005
Pages: 227 - 262

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