Multiple Negation in Asian Englishes: A Corpus-Based Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.28986Keywords:
multiple negation, Asian Englishes, non-standard language, negative polarity items, language variation, language contactAbstract
Multiple negation is a linguistic structure that entails the coexistence of two or more negative polarity items within the same clause (e.g., She does not have nothing) to create an emphatic meaning. Although the occurrence of this linguistic variant has been traditionally proscribed and restricted to the non-standard dialects of British and the United States English (Huddleston and Pullum 2002, 846), the impact of these exonormative varieties has contributed to its spread across non-native varieties of English (Collins 2023, 66), where it is starting to be analysed from a sociolinguistic and morphosyntactic point of view. To contribute to the existing literature on the matter, this paper aims to explore the sociolinguistic constraints that may have conditioned the presence of multiple negation in Asian Englishes. We have conducted a corpus-based study comparing the occurrence of this linguistic variant across the forementioned native varieties, and the following non-native varieties: Bangladeshi, Indian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, and The Philippines Englishes, as represented in the Corpus of Global Web-Based English. Overall, the Philippines and Singaporean Englishes show the highest frequencies of multiple negation due to the globalization of Present-day English and the morphosyntactic innovations of computer-mediated language. Nonetheless, the other Asian varieties present much lower frequencies, accounted for by the influence of British prescriptivism and their contact with their linguistic landscape.
Funding
The research reported in this article was supported by grant FPU2024-004-C, funded by the Ministry of Education and Universities of the Government of the Balearic Islands, and by grant PID2024-157009NB-100, funded by MICIU/AEI (10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union (ERDF).References
Anderwald, Lieselotte. 2002. Negation in Non-Standard British English. Gaps, Regularizations and Asymmetries. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203167502
Anderwald, Lieselotte. 2005. "Negative Concord in British English Dialects." In Iyeiri 2005, 116-137. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.132.13and
Beal, Joan, Morana Lukač and Robin Straaijer, eds. 2023. The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Prescriptivism. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003095125
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.
Blanchette, Frances. 2013. "Negative Concord in English." Linguistic Variation 13 (1): 1-47. https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.13.1.01bla
Blanchette, Frances. 2017. "Micro-syntactic Variation in American English Negative Concord." Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 2 (1): 65. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.188
Blanchette, Frances, and Chris Collins. 2018. "On the Subject of Negative Auxiliary Inversion." Canadian Journal of Linguistics 64 (1): 32-61. https://doi.org/10.1017/cnj.2018.22
Bravo, Diana and Antonio Briz, eds. 2004. Pragmática Sociocultural: Estudios sobre el Discurso de Cortesía en Español, Barcelona: Ariel España.
Bolton, Kingsley, Werner Botha and Andy Kirkpatrick, eds. 2020. The Handbook of Asian Englishes. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118791882
Buschfeld, Sarah. 2020. "Synopsis: Fine-tuning the EIF Model." In Buschfeld and Kautzsch 2020, 397-415. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474445863.003.0018
Buschfeld, Sarah and Alexander Kautzsch. 2017. "Towards an Integrated Approach to Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Englishes." World Englishes 36 (1): 104-126. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12203
Buschfeld, Sarah and Alexander Kautzsch, eds. 2020. Modelling World Englishes: A Joint Approach to Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Varieties. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474445863.001.0001
Cao, Luwen and Zhiming Bao. 2018. "Multiple Negation in Singapore English." In Déprez and Henry 2018, 153-170. https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.55.07cao
Chandralal, Dileep. 2010. Sinhala. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/loall.15
Cheshire, Jenny. 1995. "English Negation from an Interactional Perspective." Cahiers Du Centre de Linguistique Et Des Sciences du Langage (7): 71-94. https://doi.org/10.26034/la.cdclsl.1995.1923
Collins, Peter. 2023. "Variation in World Englishes through the Lens of Negation." World Englishes 43 (1): 47-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12638
Crystal, David. 2003. English as a Global Language. Cambridge UP. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486999
Crystal, David. 2018. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge UP. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108528931
Curzan, Anne. 2009. "Says Who? Teaching and Questioning the Rules of Grammar." PMLA 124 (3): 870-879. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2009.124.3.870
Davies, Mark. 2013. "Corpus of Global Web-based English (GloWbE)." https://www.english-corpora.org/glowbe/ [Accessed online October 25, 2023]
Déprez, Viviane and Fabiola Henry, eds. 2018. Negation and Negative Concord: The View from Creoles. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.55
Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fennig, eds. 2025. "Ethonologue: Languages of the World." Accesed online September 16, 2025. https://www.ethnologue.com
Fischer, Olga, Ans van Kemenade, Willem Koopman and Wim van der Wurff. 2000. The syntax of Early English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612312
Fisher, Sabriya. 2022. "The Status of Ain't in Philadelphia African American English." Language Variation and Change 34 (1): 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394522000060
Fisiak, Jacek and Marcin Krygier, eds. 1999. Advances in English Historical Linguistics. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804072
Fuchs, Robert. 2016. "The Frequency of the Present Perfect in Varieties of English around the World." In Werner, Seoane and Suárez-Gómez 2016, 223-258. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110443530-011
Gargesh, Ravinder. 2019. "South Asian Englishes". In Nelson, Proshina and Davis 2019, 107-134. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119147282.ch7
Gonçalves, Bruno, Lucía Loureiro-Porto, José J. Ramasco and David Sánchez. 2018. "Mapping the Americanization of English in Space and Time." PloS one 13 (5): e0197741. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197741
Grieve, Jack, Douglas Biber, Eric Friginal and Tatiana Nekrasova. 2010. "Variation among Blogs: A Multi-dimensional Analysis." In Mehler, Sharoff and Santini 2010, 303-322. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9178-9_14
Gunderson, Keith, ed. 1975. Language, Mind and Knowledge. Canada: Minnesota UP.
Hackenberg, Robert. 1972. "Appalachian English: A Sociolinguistic Study." PhD diss., Georgetown U.
Hashim, Azirah. 2020. "Malaysian English." In Bolton, Botha and Kirkpatrick 2020, 373-397. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118791882.ch16
Heller, Benedikt, Tobias Bernaisch and Stefan Gries. 2017. "Empirical Perspectives on Two Potential Epicenters: The Genitive Alternation in Asian Englishes." ICAME Journal 41: 111-144. https://doi.org/10.1515/icame-2017-0005
Herring, Susan C. 2019. "Grammar and Electronic Communication." The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0466.pub2
Horn, Laurence R. 2010a. "Multiple Negation in English and Other Languages." In Horn 2010b, 111-148. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110219302.111
Horn, Laurence R., ed. 2010b. The Expression of Negation. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110219302.111
Huddleston, Rodney and Geoffrey K. Pullum, eds. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316423530.010
Hundt, Marianne, Sebastian Hoffmann and Joybrato Mukherjee. 2011. "Indian English an Emerging Epicentre? A Pilot Study on Light Verbs in Web-derived Corpora of South Asian Englishes." Anglia 129 (3-4): 258-280. https://doi.org/10.1515/angl.2011.083
Iyeiri, Yoko, ed. 2005. Aspects of English Negation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.132
Kallel, Amel. 2007. "The Loss of Negative Concord in Standard English: Internal Factors." Language Variation and Change 19 (1): 27-49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394507070019
Kastovsky, Dieter, ed. 1991. Historical English Syntax. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110863314
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine. 2004. "¿Es Universal la Cortesía?" In Bravo and Briz 2004, 39-54.
Khrishnamurti, Bhadriraju. 2003. The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486876
Kirkpatrick, Andy, ed. 2010. The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203849323
Kortmann, Bernd, Kerstin Lunkenheimer and Katharina Ehret, eds. 2020. The Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English (eWAVE). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3712132
Labov, William. 1972. "Negative Attraction and Negative Concord in English Grammar." Language 48 (4): 773-818. https://doi.org/10.2307/411989
Litamahuputty, Bathseba Helena Johanna. 2012. "Ternate Malay: Grammar and Texts." PhD diss., Leiden U. https://hdl.handle.net/1887/19945
Loureiro-Porto, Lucía. 2017. "ICE vs GloWbE: Big Data and Corpus Compilation." World Englishes 36 (3): 448-470. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12281
Low, Ee Ling. 2020. "English in Southeast Asia." In Nelson, Proshina, and Davis 2020, 135-158. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118791882.ch16
Lucas, Cristopher and David Wllis. 2012. "Never Again: The Multiple Grammaticalization of Never as a Marker of Negation in English." English Language and Linguistics, 16 (3): 459-485. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674312000196
Mair, Christian. 2013. "The World System of Englishes: Accounting for the Transnational Importance of Mobile and Mediated Vernaculars." English World-Wide 34 (3): 253-278. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.34.3.01mai
Mehler, Alexander, Serge Sharoff and Marina Santini, eds. 2010. Genres on the Web: Text, Speech and Language Technology (Vol. 42). London, New York: Springer Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9178-9
Nelson, Cecil, Zoya G. Proshina and Daniel R. Davis, eds. 2019. The Handbook of World Englishes (Second Edition). New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119147282
Nevalainen, Terttu. 1999. "Social Mobility and the Decline of Multiple Negation in Early Modern English." In Fisiak and Krysier 1999, 263-291. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804072.263
Nevalainen, Terttu. 2006. "Negative Concord as an English 'Vernacular Universal': Social History and Linguistic Typology." Journal of English Linguistics 34 (3): 257-278. https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424206293144
Nevalainen, Terttu and Gijsbert Rutten. 2012. "Introduction: Comparative Historical Sociolinguistics and the History of Negation." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 113 (3): 261-273.
Palacios-Martínez, Ignacio M. 2010. "It Ain't Nothing to Do with my School. Variation and Pragmatic Uses of Ain't in the Language of British English Teenagers." English Studies 91 (5): 548-566. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2010.488841
Palacios-Martínez, Ignacio M. 2011. "The Expression of Negation in British Teenager's Language: A Preliminary Study." Journal of English Linguistics 39 (1): 4-35. https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424210366905
Palacios-Martínez, Ignacio M. 2013. "Non-standard Negation in Modern English. A Corpus-based Study of Four Salient Features." Revista de Filología Inglesa 34: 211-226.
Palacios-Martínez, Ignacio M. 2017. "Negative Concord in the Language of British Adults and Teenagers." English World-Wide 38 (2): 153-180. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.38.2.02pal
Palacios-Martínez, Ignacio M. 2019. "Vernon Never Called for Me Yesterday: A Study of Never as a Marker of Negation in the English of London Adults and Teenagers." English Text Construction 12 (2): 290-318. https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00030.pal
Pefianco-Martín, Isabel. 2010. "Periphery ELT: The Politics and Practice of Teaching English in the Philippines." In Kirkpatrick 2010, 269-286.
Peters, Pam and Tobias Bernaisch, 2022. "The Current State of Research into Linguistic Epicentres." World Englishes 41 (3): 320-332. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12581
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London, New York: Longman.
Rayson, Paul. 2025. "Log-Likelihood and Effect Size Calculator." Accessed September 25, 2025. https://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/llwizard.html
Schneider, Edgar. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618901
Schneider, Edgar. 2014. "New Reflections on the Evolutionary Dynamics of World Englishes." World Englishes 33 (1): 9-32. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12069
Schneider, Edgar. 2020. "English in North America Accounting for its Evolution." In Buschfeld and Kautzsch 2020, 228-25. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474445863.003.0011
Schneider, Edgar. 2023. "The Role of Prescriptivism in the Emergence of New Englishes." In Beal, Lukač, and Straaijer 2023, 103-120. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003095125-8
Searle, John R. 1975. "A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts." In Gunderson 1975, 344-369.
Sells, Peter, John Rickford and Thomas Wasow. 1996. "An Optimality Theoretic Approach to Variation in Negative Inversion in AAVE." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 14: 591-627. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133599
Seoane, Elena and Cristina Suárez-Gómez. 2023. "A Look at the Nativization of Bangladeshi English through Corpus Data." Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 68: 15–37. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20238760
Skóze, Johanna. 2010. "Multiple Negation in English Today." The Odd Yearbook 8: 139-153.
Smith, Jennifer. 2001. "Negative Concord in the Old and New World: Evidence from Scotland." Language Variation and Change 13 (2): 109-134. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394501132011
The Jamovi Project. 2022. Jamovi (Version 2.6.2.0) [Computer Software]. Retrieved from https://www.jamovi.org.
Tottie, Gunnel. 1991. "Lexical Diffusion in Syntactic Change: Frequency as a Determinant of Linguistic Conservatism in the Development of Negation in English." In Kastovsky 1991, 439-467.
Werner, Valentin, Elena Seoane and Cristina Suárez-Gómez, eds. 2016. Re-assessing the Present Perfect. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110443530
Wolfram, Walt and Donna Christian. 1976. Appalachian Speech. Virginia: Center for Applied Linguistics.
Wolfram, Walt and Ralph Fasold. 1974. The Study of Social Dialects in American English. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 María Victoria Rodríguez Lázaro
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
