The change in negation in Middle English: A NEGP licensing account

During the Middle English period (1150-1500 AD), the sentential negator of English changed from the preverbal ne to the postverbal not. During the transition, there was frequent use of a bipartite ne... not negator. This paper presents a detailed quantitative study of the change. I show that as not changes from sentence adverb, with a distribution parallel to never, to sentential negator, ne is lost. However, the rates of change in the use of not and ne are significantly different, indicating that these two forms are not in direct, grammatical competition. An account of the indirect connection between ne and not is given using a licensing condition for the projection of negation, NEGP. I also show that the overlapping use of the two systems of negation, ne... not, does not constitute an independent system. The change in negators shows that both functional and structural considerations are relevant in properly modeling syntactic change, and thus that diachronic change reflects aspects of competence and performance.