The timing of the loss of NegV1 in early English is compared with the loss of the negative particle ne and the rise of secondary negation. A verse corpus of Middle English verse is used, allowing comparison throughout the time-span of the Middle English period. Neg V1 in Old and Early Middle English is related to a strong but uninterpretable [+neg] feature on C⁰, which was checked by an interpretable [+neg] feature on Neg⁰, spelt out as ne. As the interpretable [+neg] feature formerly on Neg⁰ became a Spec feature in NegP, a strong [+ neg] feature on C became unviable, since the negated verb’s  [+neg] feature was now uninterpretable and was eliminated before the verb could raise to check a strong feature on C⁰. 

 

It is shown that this development was not triggered by the loss of the negative particle ne, which followed the decline of NegV1. It is suggested that it may have been related to the rise of secondary negation, though data is insufficient to substantiate this possibility.

 

In learnability terms, both the existence of the strong [+neg] feature on C⁰ in early English and its loss were posited on the basis of syntactic evidence, rather than morphology. The formal expression of the prefix ne was not relevant to the loss of NegV1. Our claims are compared with the proposals of van Kemenade (2000) and Eythórsson (2002) with respect to negation in Early Germanic languages.