This paper aims to make a textual investigation of weak adjectives manifested in the Old English epic Beowulf and provide the minimalist-based morphosyntactic accounts for their distributions. It furthermore examines how weak adjectives are associated with diachronic changes in nominal definiteness in terms of grammaticalization. The suggestion is made that weak adjective paradigm in Beowulf represents nominal definiteness in early Old English. It frequently constitutes a functional head for definiteness within determinerless NPs but sometimes shows signs of reanalysis into the affix. The coincidence of the weak adjective and the demonstrative is understood as evidence for the adoption of the demonstrative for a definiteness marker through renewal. Then, the new cycle on nominative definiteness begins, with the demonstrative becoming subject to unidirectional progression in the cline of grammaticalization.

This study aims to provide both synchronic and diachronic accounts for NC in OE. Concerning the single negative relation in NC, the hypothesis is proposed that n-words in NC carry the [uNEG] feature which should be matched against the [iNEG] feature of the functional head Neg via the syntactic operation of Agree. Nevertheless, textual investigation reveals that the frequency of NC in OE radically differs depending on the period of authorship: its relative paucity in EOE and predominance in LOE. The emergence of NC in OE is associated with the diachronic reduction of the XP sentential negator into the X0 Neg, since only the X0 Neg takes the [iNEG] feature matching with the [uNEG] feature of n-words. Subsequently, the introduction of n-words can be understood as a solution to reinforce weakened sentential negation. Through the process of grammaticalization, one of those n-words becomes a second negator with the XP status, starting on its way to negative cycle.