In the paper I endeavour to shed more light on the use of NON at the time when it started to occur as a prefix in English. As is well known, it entered the language as a loan from Latin in the early twelfth century and was used with adjectival or adverbial function. I start from the data provided by the second edition of the OED and compare them with those obtained from the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts and Kurah & Kuhn's Middle English Dictionary. It should also be said that a thorough study of NON- cannot overlook the more general, knotty, yet fascinating field of negative prefixation. Therefore, before going into my research in detail, I quickly review the most common means of prefixal negation in Modern English, their meaning and the basic features distinguishing them from the prefix under study.
From non-recurrence to occurrence: First recordings of the prefix NON- in English
FACCHINETTI, Roberta
1994-01-01
Abstract
In the paper I endeavour to shed more light on the use of NON at the time when it started to occur as a prefix in English. As is well known, it entered the language as a loan from Latin in the early twelfth century and was used with adjectival or adverbial function. I start from the data provided by the second edition of the OED and compare them with those obtained from the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts and Kurah & Kuhn's Middle English Dictionary. It should also be said that a thorough study of NON- cannot overlook the more general, knotty, yet fascinating field of negative prefixation. Therefore, before going into my research in detail, I quickly review the most common means of prefixal negation in Modern English, their meaning and the basic features distinguishing them from the prefix under study.
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