In this work we consider the diachronic development of two distinct types of negative markers, those originally stemming from minimizers (m-negation) and those originally deriving from a negative quantifier (q-negation). We provide evidence in favor of the hypothesis that, despite appearances, they do not follow the same grammaticalization path. We claim that the distinct syntactic position of the two types of negation in the modern dialects depends on the distinct evolution path they have taken, which in turn depends on their original properties. While minimizers change their position during the grammaticalization cline, q-negation stays in the same position throughout the whole process. If this is correct, it means that Jespersen’s cycle is not syntactically homogenous and that the result of a postverbal negative marker can be achieved by means of various strategies.

In this article we analyze partitive objects under negation (NPOs) in the Northern Italian dialectal (NID) domain and discuss their diachronic and synchronic relation with both partitive constructions and partitive articles. We take into exam the areal distribution of the phenomenon, its syntactic variation and the different factors that regulate this variation. The main claim of the paper is that NPOs in the NIDs are a special type of grammaticalized partitive constructions, where negation licenses a silent quantifier and the preposition expresses extraction from a ‘whole’. In other words, the development of NPOs is similar to that of partitive articles, but they have not lost the partitive meaning. This explains why they appear only with plurals and singular mass nouns.

In this article we discuss the use of big corpuses or databases as a first step for qualitative analysis of linguistic data. We concentrate on ASIt, the Syntactic Atlas of Italy, and take into consideration the different types of dialectal data that can be collected from similar corpora and databases. We analyze all the methodological problems derived from the necessary compromise between the strict requirements imposed by a scientific inquiry and the management of big amounts of data. As a possible solution, we propose that the type of variation is per se a tool to derive meaningful generalizations. To implement this idea, we examine three different types of variation patterns that can be used in the study of morpho-syntax: the geographical distribution of properties (and their total or partial overlapping, or complementary distribution), the so-called leopard spots variation, and the lexical variation index, which can be used to determine the internal complexity of functional items.

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