The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

316 The syntax of early Englishdetail in Jack (1978a, b, c). This takes us to stage (iv) of Jespersen’s cycle: theoriginal negative marker becomes extinct.As soon as ne has disappeared, not immediately begins to show signs ofphonological weakening, and its syntax gives clear evidence that it is becominga negative head. To see this, we will look at the relative ordering of subjectsand not during the Middle English period. Recall that the patterninherited from Old English is one in which not has a fixed position, with pronominalsubjects preceding it and nominal subjects following it. This was thevery evidence that we took to motivate an analysis of not as a Spec,NegPelement, with ne as the negative head. Part of the further motivation for thisanalysis is that ne behaves as an incorporating head, covarying positionallywith the finite verb. Once ne has disappeared, not is beginning to show evidenceof being a negative head: it moves along with the finite verb when thelatter is moved to C, for instance in negative questions. This is illustrated by(36a), which we analyse as in (36b):(36) a. dyd not I send unto yow one Mowntayne that was both a traytor and aherytyke . . .? (Mowntayne 210)b. CPSpecC'C FPdid not iSpecIFF'NegPSpecNeg'Negt iSpecTPTt iT'… VPSpecV'… V …send unto you …In the grammar producing (36), not is a negative head incorporating with thefinite verb did on its way to C. The innovation is that a new generation oflearners is constructing grammars in which not is no longer a specifier, but a