Negation and indefinites in Late Latin

Abstract

In this paper I investigate the interplay between sentential negation and indefinites in some Late Latin texts (since the 3rd century AD), with the aim of tracing back to this stage later developments affecting the early Romance languages. I argue that the persistence of Object-Verb order with negative indefinites in Late Latin is a sign of an early restructuring in the system of sentential negation, preluding to the early Romance systems. I propose a parsimonious interpretation of this diachronic process in terms of one crucial change in the formal features of the negative marker nōn, with a number of significant consequences for its relationship with the indefinite pronouns.