Negation in English Speech and Writing: A Study in Variation (Quantitative Analyses of Linguistic Structure)

A book intended for general linguists working in negation, variation theory, discourse studies, speech and writing, corpus linguistics, acceptability and definiteness/indefiniteness specificities, as well as English language. A major quantitative study of negation in English, providing an account of factors which determine the overall use negation as well as of specific types of negation in speech and writing. The findings are a result of discourse properties of spoken and written language and to language change.