POLYNEGATION IN THE HISTORY OF GERMAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE: THE CASE OF REDUNDANCY

Abstract

The paper discusses the case of polynegation in Old Germanic languages as a feature of certain genres of existing literature at that time. In terms of polynegation attention is focused on the phenomenon of negative concord, which correlates with the presence of a verbal negative marker and another negative element, i. e., adverb or pronoun. It is argued that negative concord results in one semantic core of negation. The similarities and differences of realization means for multiple negation in the three periods of German and English language development have been analyzed, considering linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The cyclical step-by-step development of syntactic negation has been presented using the mechanism of Jespersen cycle to identify the motivation of negative patterns in the diachronic aspect. Special emphasis has been given to the phenomenon of grammatical redundancy. The outlined type of redundancy has been evidenced by the system of sentence negation within the proposed time periods. The defining features of redundancy from the point of view of diachronic perspective have been characterized. The changes that took place in the negation system of Old, Middle, Early High German, Old, Middle English and Early New English indicate the processes of grammaticalization demonstrated by empirical data from literary monuments of the studied periods. The research has established that structural changes in the system of sentence negation were of gradual and systematic character. The mechanism of grammatical redundancy has played the key role in transformation of negation model in diachrony. At present, the problem of motivating factors in formation of negative constructions in synchronic and diachronic planes remains relevant, taking into consideration both interlinguistic and extralinguistic triggers in the historical development of the language.