Negative cycles

Abstract

Crosslinguistically, negatives change in a cyclical fashion. A particular negative weakens and is renewed by another element. In this article, I provide examples of two distinct negative cycles, one using an indefinite phrase and the other a verbal head as renewal. The examples are taken from Indo-European, Uralic, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit, Haida, Afro-Asiatic, and Chinese. I also provide an account of both cycles using phrase structures and economy principles as in generative grammar.