Two Wrongs Make a Right: The Politics of Negative Concord

The present article’s aim is to trace the historical shift of what is often termed “double negation” (more precisely, negative concord) from a normative feature of Middle English to a stigmatised form in standard English. It examines how eighteenth-century grammarians, such as Robert Lowth and Lindley Murray, codified the “one negative” rule, aligning grammar with Enlightenment rationalism and the logic of Latin. These norms spread through print culture and education, reinforcing social stratification. Yet, negative concord has persisted in dialects, literature, and adolescent speech, indicating lasting grammatical and sociolinguistic relevance. The study adopts an interdisciplinary approach to show how syntactic change is influenced by mobility, perceptions of ideology and institutional authority.

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