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

Negative constructions in KA are, however, remarkably conservative
for this date. As far as ne, ne ... not, and not are concerned, most
relevant examples include the adverb ne on the one hand, while on
the other hand the adverb not occurs only occasionally. As a matter
of fact, the employment of ne ... not and not are so limited that their
examples tend to be attested in some specific conditions. 29 examples
of ne ... not include fourteen instances of imperative clauses and/or
clauses with the inverted word order, as illustrated below:
Lordynges, ne beer nouth anguisshous,
Pei3 3ee habbej' 3oure frendes ylore (1654-5)
Bot he be ful wel ytau3tte,
Wijouten skorne ne passej he nou3th! (3137-8)
Furthermore, 22 instances of not alone also include eight examples of
imperative clauses and/or clauses with the inverted word order. For
exam pie:
'Dame' he seide, 'be Jou nou3t looj'--
Jch am ycome to telle Je sooj" (227-8)
Mi3th he nou3th dure for e hate (576).
That not is less frequent than ne ... not also indicates the
conservative nature of this text, although the difference between the
frequencies of ne ... not and not is not particularly large.
Another conservative feature is also attested in clauses with
never, no, etc. Most examples of never, no, etc. still occur together
with ne, while those which have undergone the disappearance of ne
account for only about one fourth of the relevant examples. The
preservation of ne is, in fact, more pronounced with clauses with
never, no, etc. than clauses with not. This may be a feature typical
of conservative texts. It has notably been attested in WS (see (8)
above) and Ferumbras (see (10) above), both of which are relatively
conservative for their dates.
The date of KA is more or less as late as the proposed date of
65