Viktória Albert, Judit Szitó: On Sentential Negation in The Lay of Havelok the Dane

Article

Although a substantial study has been done in the area of the development of negation in English,
the present article seeks to shed light on and provide a general picture of the state of negation reflected in the Middle English text The Lay of Havelok the Dane. Furthermore, it approaches various types and functions of verbal negation, mainly ne and nouht, in both main and subordinate clauses as well as discusses several reasons which may have triggered the eventual loss of double negatives in Standard English.