Yoko Iyieri PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText - University ...

favoured in the text. Not only the use of the adverb not but also of
never, no, etc. is equally avoided in interrogative clauses, which is a
striking feature in view of the frequent occurrence of ne plus never,
no, etc. in the whole sample of Group 1 (42.7%). To turn to SEL, not
only ne alone (12x) but also ne ... not (8x) is fairly common unlike
the situation of 0&N, but the tendency to avoid never, j, etc. is
clearly observed in this text as well, as the table above shows.
Concerning Group 2, examples of negative interrogative clauses
are not entirely common. The totals of Group 2, however, reveal a
clear contrast to the whole sample of Group 2 presented at the
bottom of the table. The occurrences of ne alone (43.8%), ne ... not
(18.8%), and not (25.0%) are all more common in interrogative clauses
than in the whole sample (25.7%, 13.4%, and 11.5% respectively). This
is partly due to the particularly limited occurrence of never, no, etc.
in negative interrogative clauses. The whole sample of Group 2
provides 29.8% of the pattern in which ne is accompanied by never,
no, etc. and 19.7% of never, no, etc. alone as a result of the
disappearance of ne, while negative interrogative clauses present
only 12.5% of ne plus never, no, etc. and no instances of never, no,
etc. alone.
The tendency for interrogative clauses not to employ never, no,
etc. is carried over to Group 3 as well, where never, no, etc. alone
are usually common (53.9% of the whole sample). As for negative
interrogative clauses, only ten out of 54 exemplify never, no, etc.
alone (18.5%) as the above table shows. This is a consistent outcome
of the infrequent occurrence of ne plus never, no, etc. at early
stages of the development illustrated by Groups 1 and 2.
On the whole, however, no significant features about ne, ne
not, and not are observed with the present syntactic context. Ne is
particularly common in some texts, but ne ... not and not are not
especially limited compared with the situation of the whole sample.
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