Why do languages around the world seem to "double up" on negation? In French, you say "ne" and "pas" to negate a verb—but this isn't just a quirk of French. Double negation strategies appear across the globe: from Nordic tongues to Navajo, from Afrikaans to Arabic. So why is this pattern so common, and how do these negation structures develop in the first place?
Footnotes, Corrections, and Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oSEfflSuuKTyYJaekuTnRDUA7aqn3cqN73e4ITWUDUk
Check me out on other social media: https://linktr.ee/human1011
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction
00:48 - Jespersen's Cycle
02:38 - The Weakness Hypothesis
06:58 - The Emphatic Hypothesis
11:05 - Combined Approach
17:30 - Complications
19:38 - Outro