ABSTRACT
The problem of negation is intertwined with other crucial questions that are still partly unsolved, such as that of a 'basic' word-order in Old English (OE). The element that emerges clearly is the multiplicity and diversity of inherently negative forms that existed in OE and Early Middle English (ME). One of the elements that account for the huge differences between some texts is a structural phenomenon partly responsible for the variation in negative forms over OE and ME: Neg-Incorporation. It is clear that some genres are totally absent for some periods of the history of any language, and yet some specific features of text-types do emerge, even for OE. It is a pity that diachronic and diatopic differences are often obliterated by the two above-mentioned factors: poetic diction and influence of Latin. One formulation of the Neg-Concord rule says that the negator is 'copied' or repeated on all elements in the clause which are capable of incorporating it.
