Complement clauses of verbs of fear often contain expletive negation, which is negative marking without negative
meaning. Expletive negation in fear-complements regularly co-occurs with non-indicative moods, such as subjunctive, conjunctive,
or conditional. The aim of this paper is to provide a diachronic explanation for the phenomenon of expletive negation in
complement clauses of fear-verbs. Based on data from various languages, I will show that cases of expletive negation after verbs
of fear can be divided into several groups, each with a different origin. Fear complement clauses can derive from embedded polar
questions, paratactic constructions expressing a wish, or from negative purpose clauses. Complement clauses with polar questions
usually contain an indicative verb form, while clauses based on the expression of a wish often have non-indicative verb forms. The
paper also discusses cases in which expletive negation is lost.
Article outline
1.Introduction
2.Fear complement clauses: The main patterns
2.1Fear-complements without expletive negation
2.2Fear-complements with expletive negation and indicative
2.3Fear-complements with expletive negation and non-indicative mood
2.4Summary
3.Functional motivation for the usage of expletive negation
3.1Functional motivation for the usage of expletive negation in clauses with an embedded question
3.2Functional motivation for the usage of expletive negation in complement clauses with a non-indicative mood
3.2.1Fear-complements with volitional forms
3.2.2Fear-complements with the subjunctive
3.2.2.1Fear-complements with a subjunctive derived from a wish-construction
3.2.2.2Fear-complements with a subjunctive derived from negative purpose
3.3Summary
4.Loss of expletive negation: Different stages of development
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