The Pragmatic Motifs of the Jespersen Cycle: Default, Activation, and the History of Negation in French Pierre Larrivée Abstract

A pragmatic contribution has been assumed to characterise the postverbal items pas, point and mie in the process of accessing default negative status. This assumption however has until recently rested on little empirical support. Such evidence is sought in the recent study of Mosegaard Hansen and Visconti (2007), who evaluate the intervention of activation for the use of pas and mie in early French and of mica in early Italian. The French markers appear to have uneven relations with activation. Explicit activation does not define their distribution, as pas and mie are found in only five examples where they relate to an antecedent assertion:

“Good Sir, says Gawain, then you can surely tell me, if you please, in what way I am that which you accuse me of.” – “I’ll not tell you, he says, but soon you’ll find one who’ll tell you.” (Mosegaard Hansen and Visconti 2007: 15, example (66))

Thus, that night, the King was very troubled and much lost in thought out of love for his valiant men, whom he had loved very much, who were to leave him the next day to go to a place where he believed they would stay for a long time. And if they should stay absent long, he wasn’t much troubled by it. But what greatly grieves his heart is that he thinks that many of them will die in this Quest, [...]. (Mosegaard Hansen and Visconti 2007: 16-17, example (67))

"When Perceval told them about the ways of the shuttles, Galaad said this: "Good Sir, it is now proper now that we fetch a lady who will change these sword-belts and put another: because without this none of us must take this sword from here." And they say that they don't know where he could find her. "And yet, they say, we will willingly go to find her, as it is proper to do so." When the lady who was Perceval's sister heard them lamenting in this way, she said to them: "Lord, do not trouble yourself, because, God willing, before we leave, the sword-belts will be put back, as beautiful and rich as they should be."

b. [...] et lor demande dont il sont. Et il li dient. "Ha ! Seignor, por Dieu, fet ele, se vos poez si vos en retornez ! Car, se Diex me consalt, vos estes venu a vostre mort ; et por ce vos loeroie je en droit conseil que vos retornez ançois que cil de ceienz vos sorpreignent dedenz les murs. "Et il dient qu'il ne retorneront mie. "Donc volez vos, fet ele, morir ?" –"Or ne vos esmaiez, font il. Car Cil en qui servise nos sommes entré nos conduira."

And she asks them where they are from. And they tells her. "Oh, Lord, by God, she says, if you can, you go back! Because, if God advises me well, you have come to your death; and because of this I would press you with the right advice to go back before those here find you within the walls" And they say that they will not go back. "Do you therefore want to die?" –"Now do not trouble yourself, they said. Because the one in the service of whom we have entered will lead us."

Similar causes for concern are found by Lene Schøsler in the 13^th century chanson de gestes Le Charroi de Nîmes. Some sequences have coordinated verbs one of which is negated with a reinforcement and the other not. The same sequence has simple negation in some of nine manuscripts examined, a reinforced one being found in others. [Similar objections are being documented on other texts by Richard Waltereit (Lene Schøsler, personal communication).] Some sequences in clear denial environments do not have a postverbal reinforcement in any of the manuscripts. This last difficulty is relativised by the fact that the clearly activated preverbal marker non is involved for verse 1087, and that a polarity expression por tot l'or desoz ciel 'for all the gold under the sky' establishes the strength of the denial in verse 1088. More generally, in line with the cited suggestion by Breitbarth and Haegeman (2008), it may be that an activation value does not have to be marked, optionality accounting for the variability of marking across manuscripts and sequences. It may also be that sequences and verbs with postverbal markers do force accommodation of activated value, even when found in discourse-new contexts. These amount to the proposals that activated contexts need not be marked but that the sequences with the postverbal marker must be activated, without which some independent means of verification would lead to circularity.

Such a context-driven property as explicit activation may be less likely to be found in literary sources. Such sources raise well-known issues for the representation of vernacular exchanges due to stylistic and register specificities of the literary. These difficulties are compounded by the fact that texts often exist in several transcribed manuscripts and are difficult to situate in terms of place and time of production, origins of author and nature of audience. Transcription errors, idiolectal, regional and social variation, genre conventions and stylistic effect can only be conjectured upon as the source of variation between manuscripts, texts and sequences. These reasons justify the use of complementary data. An examination was made of the Anglo-Norman Correspondence Corpus. Put together by Richard Ingham, the corpus contains 50 Anglo-Norman letters written in the later 13^th and early 14^th centuries by ecclesiastical writers. Their author and recipient can be identified, as can be the place and time of writing. As they represent non-literary exchanges aiming at the transmission of a message, these ordinary sources are likely to reflect a usage closer to everyday French. The actual pragmatic status of markers is thus more likely to be observed.

The search for ne yielded, after exclusion of coordination and contrastive constructions, 209 examples of the preverbal negative, of which 183 are free and 26 graphically agglutinated to the following verb or clitic. There were 29 cases of pas (one without ne), 46 of mie and mye (two without ne) and two point (one without ne). That makes for 213 negative sequences, of which point represents 0.9%, pas 13.6% and mie 21.6%.

The relatively small sample allows an examination of each example in its larger context with detailed attention to the pragmatic value of activation for the pas that is to emerge as the default marker. It is not primarily explicitly activated.³⁰ Activation of the verb ask in a subordinate may support that status for the main verb in the following:
(23) Les poinz de qui il fet parole nus ne vous maundum pas, kar nuls ne les maunda a nus en especial.

"The points that he talked about we do not ask you, since none asked us specifically."

"Sir, I beg you again that you have mercy of the monks, because they were never so badly treated in Christianity as they are under your power, this against your will, as I believe. With this, Sir, I do not believe that they have done anything against the Crown."

"We make it known to you that we have carefully looked at the agreement in presence of your treasurer, and in it it, it was not found that we would be charged of such payment, according to the words contained in the letter of the said Bishop, but what has to be paid in this part, according to the form of the agreement, must be paid to the treasury of the Bishop at Canterbury, and not to your fiefdom as the Bishop's letter requests."

b. Pour la queu chose esteyent recordez les articles de une parte de autre devaunt nus, e veymes ben e entendimes ke la descorde de vos bayliff e des nos surt de ceo, ke il ne entendent pas la composicioun en une manere kar ele est oscure en plusurs poynz.

"For that thing the articles were recorded before us from one party and from the other, and we could see and hear well that the disagreement between your baillifs and those deaf to him, that they do not understand the agreement in a way because it is obscure on several points"

"Sir, we do not say this as an excuse, because we will be ready, when it will please God, depending on our power to do what you ask."

"And whatever people say of the misunderstanding, we cannot really believe it, because you were so agreable to us for the honour of God and the King, that we cannot believe that you wished to cause disorder, specifically against the visit of our Lord the King.

b. Sachez, sire, ke jo ai parle a ma dame la countasse solum la bulle quaunt a deus pointz ke ele contient. Le primer est ke li pape maunde ke jo me entremette de fere la peis entre vous e li. [...]. Sire, kaunt au primer, ele me respundi ke ele desirre la peis de vous et de li, plus ke nule chose qui seit en terre, e dit bien ke le ennui ke len li fet ele ne quide pas ke viegne de vostre quor.

"Be informed, Sir, that I have spoken to my lady the Countess following the bulle and the two points it contains. The first one is that the Pope request that I intervene to make peace between you and her. [...]. Sir, concerning the first one, she answered me that she wants peace between you and herself more than anything else that is on earth, and that despite the harm that is done to her, she does not believe that it comes from your heart.

(28) a. Sachez, sire, ke jo ai parle a ma dame la countasse solum la bulle quaunt a deus pointz ke ele contient. [...]. Le secund est, sire, sicome vous savez, ke jo la traie a ceo ke ele voile vouer chastete perpetuel, [...]. Al autre point, ele respundi ke ele neest pas avisee de vouer chastete, [...].

"Be informed, Sir, that I have spoken to my lady the Countess following the bulle and the two points it contains. The second one is, Sir, as you know, that I bring her to express the wish to chastity for evermore, [...]. To this other point, she answered that she is not determined to wish chastity."

b. Et pur ceo qe nous ne avoms pas connais-saunce de eaux, ne de lour poer ou nonpoer, fyablement nous les maundoms a vous, qe vous les apposez et, solom vostre discretion, taxez, et hastivement nous certifiez de la dite taxacion.

"And because we do not have any knowledge of them, of their power or lack thereof, we send them to you in trust, so that you question them and, to your discretion, tax them, and let us as soon as possible know of that taxation."

c. Sachez qe un Johan atte Welle et Richard le Hoppere nous unt quys et requys pur grace aver de meismes cele aide; et nous diens, qe vous lour demandetz dix marks, et qils vous tendent quarante soudz. Et pur ceo qe nous ne sumes pas uncore avyse quey nous dyoms faire endroit de cele grace, nous vouloms, si vous veiez qe fest afaire, qe vous recevez les xl. soudz qils tendent, [...].

"Be informed that a certain Johan atte Welle and Richard le Hoppere asked us and asked again to have the favourable treatment of such a help; we said that you are asking them ten marks, and that they offer forty penny. And because of that we have not decided what we should do with respect to that favourable treatment, we would like, if you think this would do, that you accept the forty penny they offer."

d. Et par ceo qe nous ne sumes pas certifiez si execution de toutes les choses avant dites soit fait ou ne mye; nous voloms qe, quant a taillage de noz vilains, si ils ne soient mye taillez qils soient taillez solom la forme avantdite, et qe execucion soit fait de cele taillage ore a la feste de Seint Michel proschein avenir;

"And because we have not been guaranteed that the execution of all the things mentioned before have been done or not; we want that the taxation of our villein, if they have not been taxed that they be in the way mentioned before, and that the taxation be executed before the soon approaching Saint-Michel celebration."

(29) a. Pur la queu chose nus vus maundums, ke pus ke li roys, par ke vous gardez le chastel, ne ly vout pas ottrier la parole auvant ditte, [...].

"Because of this, we ask you, that since the King, from whom you hold the castle, does not want to grant the word mentioned before."

b. Sire, jo rescu vostre lettre le jur Madame Seinte Cecile, e entendi ben pa vos lettres, ke vus ne avez pas volente de grever les Freres,

"Sir, I received your letter on the day of Our Lady Sainte-Cecile, and understood well through your letter that you do not have any intention to burden the Monks."

To the category of desire could be related the negation of having a reason to act, as the lack of trust could be to belief, as all evoke conditions that precede the actualisation of an event.
(30) a. Mais qant a Robert de Derteford; ne vous desplese, kar nous ne avoms pas cause verroye daustier celuy qi est ore en le office ou le dit Robert feust,

"But concerning Robert de Derteford; may this not displease you, because we do not have any real reason to remove the man who is still holding the job where this Robert was."

b. Dautrepart vous savez bien coment vous avyez les overaignes de noz bestes entour la gaignerie des ditz bletz; de quoy vous ne avez rien parle a nous, ne a noul des noz pur nostre assez faire en noule manere, come vous seriez bien tenuz solom ley et resoun. E nepurquant nous nous ne asseuroms pas en vostre conscience, qar nous ne avom trove unquore fesqe parole et rien de fait.

"On the other hand you well know how you had the responsibility of our animals around the said fields of wheat; of those you didn't tell us anything, as you had to by law and reason. And thus, we do not trust in you, because we have found only words and nothing done."

Similar problems arise in denial of the appropriateness of a situation:

"Because of this, if it is true, I ask you as to a friend, that you have these things modified, as it is not appropriate for me to do so."

b. Qar si hom les eust greve a tort, il deveroient plus tost avoir monstre la chose a nous qe a vons, qe verroiement, Sire, ceo nest pas mout covenable chose ne honeste de vous meller entre nous et noz vileyns, nient plus qe nous fesoms de voz vileyns de Tuvertone on aillours.

"Because if a man had wronged them, they should have shown this to me rather than you, that really, Sir, it is not a very appropriate or honest thing that you stand between us and our villeins, no more that if we would do with your villeins in Turvertone or elsewhere."

c. kar jo bei abatre ceste eslaundre si Dieus men doint le poer, ne jo ne le puis pas lesser saunz graunt pecche.

"because I will put an end to this slander if God gives me the strenght, and I cannot leave it at that without great sins."

"Sir, we have heard that the day after the Pentecost, there came to Abyndon the Count of Hereford before our very dear Lords and friends the Bishop of Durham and the Count of Cornwall, suggesting and asserting that you had not held the agreement made not long ago between you and him."

b. Nous avoms entendu bien vostre Letre et vostre propre volunte, dount nous avoms grant doel et tristour de cuer, de ceo qe nous veoms bien qe vous nestes pas si religiouses come apartendreit.

"We have understood well your letter and your will, of which we have great pain and sadness, from what we see that you are not as religious as would be proper."

c. Et, Sire, sil voille dire la verite, come il nest pas acustume, il mesmes vous grantera bien qil ad este sovent excumenge de nous et noz Officiaux, et apres venu et este assoutz.

"And, Sir, if he will say the truth, as he is not used to, he himself will well agree that he has often been excommunicated by us and our Officers, after which he came and was absolved."

"And do know that the weight of the big trees left in our woods of Longebeche and of Reggesterne is not enough to the maintenance of our houses and our mills that we have in that county.

b. [...] kar sachez ke celuy Thomas cum jo ay entendu, puis ke jo vus escris autrefez, [...] nest pas bigames, [...].

"And be informed that this Thomas, as I have heard and then wrote to you in the past, [...] he is not bigamous."

c. [...] jo li conseilai e defendi ke ele sei ne parte pas de cest pais deskes ataunt ke jo aie parle a vous a leisir, e sasche plus pleinement vostre volente, e deske la chose se aprochast a aucune bone fin.

"I advised and forbade her that she herself not leave from this county until I speak to you and know your will better, and until the affair gets near a positive result."

d. [...] et Pierres Galeys nest pas profitable pur nous.

"And Pierre Galeys is not useful to us."

There are three final attestations of pas occurring in general statements not previously used in the letter.

"We will be ready to agree as long as the Commission is made to us by another prelate; because it is not fitting for someone to make a Commission who is not prelate of prelate power."

b. [...] qele chose nest pas signe saver; qar len dyt en Fraunce qe nul nest fol qe ne quide estre sage.

"These things are not a sign of knowledge; because it is said in France that noone is a fool who does not believe to be wise."

c. [...]; qar Dieu nest pas acceptour de persone.

"Because God does not wrongly scrutinise people."

The status of emerging postverbal pas raises considerable uncertainties. On a strict interpretation, 5 out of 29 attestations in the letter corpus examined might be considered as activated, which could be attributed to all but the last two on a generous account. It may be that the data available to us and to Mosegaard Hansen and Visconti are simply too late: after all, postverbal reinforcement is already attested in Late Latin (Orlandini 2001: 70-71). It may be that we need better data: although better reflecting ordinary usage, letters do not provide for the sort of direct dialogal disagreements that is a favourite context of explicit activation. In the absence of the missive to which a letter is responding, we can only assume with various levels of certainty that an issue was part of the preoccupations of the correspondents. More certainty might be afforded by direct exchanges between two parties. Such exchanges may be found in reports of contradictory legal proceedings such as found in the Anglo-Norman Year Books. An investigation of such sources should be pursued in view of the fact that a significant portion of the uses of postverbal items in the limited corpus consulted here involves some reasonable evidence of activation. Whether such evidence can be found for ne in the contemporary period is considered in the next section.