Anne Breitbarth: The history of Low German Negation

This monograph represents a substantial contribution for at least three areas of linguistic research. First of all, it provides a synchronic description of the morpho‑syntax of negation for various historical stages of Low German varieties, as well as an analysis of the factors affecting their diachronic development. Secondly, the research is based on the careful construction and evaluation of extensive textual corpora for the varieties under consideration. In this respect, this work constitutes an important probe into the significance and representativeness of a number of historical Low German texts and text types, which preludes to the construction of a standardized, annotated electronic corpus. Thirdly, the analysis provides novel theoretical insights into a much‑discussed area of research in generative linguistics: the interaction of morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors in the expression of negation.