%0 Journal Article %A Blaxter, Tam %A Willis, David %T Pragmatic differentiation of negative markers in the early stages of Jespersen’s cycle in North Germanic %D 2018 %J Diachronica %V 35 %N 4 %P 451-486 %@ 0176-4225 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.16040.bla %K information structure %K negation %K emphasis %K Middle Norwegian %K cyclic change %K Jespersen’s cycle %K Old Norwegian %I John Benjamins %X Abstract

This 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 Norwegian ei(gi) “not” by ekki (originally “nothing”) from 1250 to 1550. We document a sharp rise in frequency of ekki around 1425, suggesting that, until then, ekki had been restricted to negating discourse-old propositions. Once this constraint was lifted, ei(gi) and ekki competed directly, resulting in rapid replacement of ei(gi) by ekki. 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. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/dia.16040.bla