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

2.1.3. General remarks
As hitherto discussed, ne is common in early ME while subsequently
it comes to be gradually supplanted by not, and this process takes
place through the intermediate form ne ... not. The three stages of
the development displayed by ne, ne ... not, and not, however, are
not as clear-cut as they seem. Ne ... not is fairly unstable or rather
tentative instead of being typical of ME usage as Jespersen (1917: 9)
argues. The adverb not is indeed introduced in the form ne ... not
first, but before ne ... not establishes itself, not alone starts to
abound. Since ne alone is retained to some extent even in later ME,
especially in some specific syntactic contexts, it is ne ... not, and not
ne alone, that declines first. Apparently not was freely employed on
its own once the adverb not was established, and there was rio need
to resort to ne ... not. Since the status of ne ... not is weak, it is
virtually the form ne and the form not that compete with each other
in the later period of ME.
It has been argued in existin g studies that a significant
expansion of ne ... not takes place during the twelfth century and
the decline of the adverb ne occurs from the thirteenth century
onwards (Jack 1978a: 306; Kisbye 1971-2, I: 195). As far as the
present study of some ME verse texts is concerned, the adverb ne
seems to be preserved to a later period than has thus far been
assumed. The first five manuscripts of three texts, PM (Lamb, Trin,
Dgb) (towards 1200 or shortly after), 0&N (the second half of the
thirteenth century), and Kil (mid-thirteenth to mid-fourteenth
century) provide only limited examples of the adverb not, and of
these all the examples of the adverb not are still in the tentative
form ne ... not. No decline of the adverb ne has yet been indicated
in these texts. As a matter of fact, the adverb ne is almost
constantly included in these texts, which therefore reveal a situation
virtually the same as the OE prose usage. A slightly later text SEL
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