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2020: Pedagogical Concept and its Features, Social Work and Linguology (1st edition)

The historical development of the expression of negation in French

DOI
https://doi.org/10.36074/pcaifswal.ed-1.07
Published
2020-12-08

Abstract

This research paper studies the evolution of the syntactic realization of negation in French. In the introduction part, it is defined the objective of the research as tracing the development of using words aucun, personne and rien in French negative structures presenting their different practical applications. One of the tasks is to find out if these constructions could be used with the negative marker pas, without inducing a double negation interpretation. The novelty of the research paper is the evolution of the expression of French negation proved by the given examples taken mostly from literary, legal or epistolary texts. The stages of evolution in French negation part shows a detailed analysis of negative markers ne and pas through different stages of their developments presented by various scientists. The evolution of negation in French is generally analyzed by using three main stages, but the investigation proves that there are other approaches for characterizing it, the so-called four stages evolution or even five stages; nevertheless, the final stage is identified by negation expressed by using only marker pas. The next part of this paper The expression of negation in Old and modern French studies the evolution of the undefined aucun, personne and rien, which are presented in the negative constructions in modern French. It is proved that the negation was strengthened by adding an undefined non-negative post verbal element or representing a small amount, such as pas, point, mie, brin, goutte, aucun, personne, rien, etc. It is concluded that in the course of historical development, these words being initially of positive value have taken on a negative coloration and value in modern French.

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