Negative Concord as an English “Vernacular Universal”

Abstract

This article is a contribution to the study of English vernacular universals, and its aims are twofold. Its empirical aim is to give a sociolinguistic account of the use and nonuse of negative concord, or multiple negation, from Late Middle to Late Modern English between 1400 and 1800. Its second aim is theory-driven: to consider the spread of nonassertive indefinites (negative polarity items) into negative contexts in terms of linguistic typology. In particular, the discussion will connect the generalization of nonassertive forms across interrogatives, conditionals, comparatives, and negatives in the history of English using the semantic map proposed by Haspelmath (1997). The article comes to the conclusion that while this negative polarity concord affects the choice of indefinites, negative versus nonassertive, which come under the scope of negation in standard and vernacular varieties of English, it does not alter the basic typology of English verbal negation with indefinites.

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