Old English Na/No and Sentential Negation

This study aims to investigate the distributions of the sentential negators na and no in Old English and illuminates their implications regarding negative cycle and the structural position of NegP. The investigation first reveals that na and no were spelling variants and constituted the second negator reinforcing ne through the process of renewal. The diachronic change of sentential negation in Old English, which forms a part of Jespersen's negative cycle, is reinterpreted as the change in the interpretability of negation features carried by a negator. As long as the reduced negator ne takes the uninterpretable negation features, it becomes a probe and necessitates the second negator functioning as a goal. Regarding the fluctuation in the ordering patterns relevant to na/no, the hypothesis is proposed that the high and the low NegP co-existed in the grammar of Late Old English, even if the frequency of the former was overwhelming and has subsequently remained as the only option since Late Middle English.