History of Low German Negation

This book examines the diachronic development of negation in Low German from Old Saxon up to the point at which Middle Low German is replaced by High German as the written language. It investigates both the development of standard negation or Jespersen's Cycle and the changing interaction between the expression of negation and indefinites in its scope giving rise to negative concord along the way. Anne Breitbarth shows that developments in Low German form a missing link between those in High German English and Dutch which have been much more widely researched. These changes are analysed using a generative account of syntactic change combined with minimalist assumptions concerning the syntax of negation and negative concord.