Neues zur Entwicklung der Negation im Mittelhochdeutschen : Grammatikalisierung und Variation in oberdeutschen Predigten

This paper investigates the development of sentential negation in Middle High German using sermons from the Upper German dialect area. To this end, a heterogeneous yet fine-grained corpus of Alemannic and Bavarian sermons is analysed with respect to diachronic development, geographical distribution and language-internal factors. What becomes clear is that Jespersens Cycle,a cross-linguistic model of the development of negation that can be seen as part ofthe received history of German negation, fails to account for the mechanisms in the development of sentential negation in German. These mechanisms cannot be understood independently of the in some respects parallel development of nindefinites. It appears that the interplay of variation and the grammaticalisation of the nindefiniten icht, which co-occurred with ne but could also appear on its own, played a more important role in the emergence of the negation particle nicht than previously thought. It is argued that when nicht was grammaticalised it retained the variation of the n-indefinite nicht, and that the subsequent loss of ne was a parallel development in both usages of nicht.(VLID)467572