A Cognitive Study Of The Development Of The Negative Clause In English

The negative clause, as we all know, is an important andindispensable sentence pattern in human being communication. It hasbeen discussed by many scholars in their works from the time of Plato.But so far most of the studies on the negative clause in English, especiallythe studies conducted by Chinese scholars, have been centered on thesemantic features and syntactic forms of the negative clause, and seldomhave there been scholars who have paid enough attention to the historicaldevelopment of the negative clause and the cognitive motivation of thedevelopment: To make up for this deficiency, this thesis has made adiachronic study of the negative clause in English, aiming to find out howthe negative clause in English has changed in the course of itsdevelopment from Old English to Modem English, and account for thechanges from the cognitive perspective.In the diachronic study, by accumulating a large number of linguisticdata, the thesis has made a considerably comprehensive survey into andcareful comparisons between the syntactic features of the negative clausereflected in Old English, Middle English and Modern English. The resultsof the survey and the comparisons show that, in its course of development,the negative clause in English has experienced two changes, thereinforcement of the negator and the forward shifting of the negator.On the basis of the results obtained from the survey and thecomparisons, the thesis has provided cognitive explanations to the twochanges undergone by the negative clause in its course of development.The thesis holds the view that both the reinforcement and the forwardshifting of the negator are the effect of the prominence view. The thesispoints out that the negative clause is a marked structure, in which thenegator is the marker, and that the reinforcement and forward shifting of the negator result from the human tendency of giving prominence to thenegative meaning the negator conveys, which satisfies humans' universalneed of acquiring cognition by way of markers and brings about cognitiveeconomy.