Frontmatter -- Table of contents -- Is there a Jespersen cycle? -- Negative words and related expressions: A new perspective on some familiar puzzles -- Negative words and negation in French -- Secondary negation and information structure organisation in the history of English -- Looking high and low for NegP in early English -- Ne-drop and indefinites in Anglo-Norman and Middle English -- Looking at Middle English through the mirror of Anglo-Norman -- Ne-absence in declarative and yes/no interrogative contexts: Some patterns of change -- The early absence of the French negative marker ne -- Atoms of negation: An outside-in micro-parametric approach to negative concord -- Viviane Déprez: ''Atoms of negation. An outside-in micro-parametric approach to negative concord.'' Discussion -- Negative polarity and the quantifier cycle: Comparative diachronic perspectives from European languages -- Indefinite pronouns, synchrony and diachrony: Comments on Willis -- Subject index -- Language index