Negation in Australian English: from bugger all to no worries

Negation forms a vibrant intersection between syntactic necessity and the creative world of the lexicon: Australian English is a splendid example of this, with a colourful array of negative idioms, from bugger all to pig’s arse. This chapter examines the relationship between terms such as these and the Jespersen Cycle, a classic process of reanalysing a postverbal element or negative polarity item (NPI) as a negator. It then reviews the relative frequency of not- and no-negation and the use of nonstandard features such as multiple negation, ain’t, singular don’t (e.g. she don’t like it) and the use of never as a simple negator (e.g. she never went to the footy last Saturday), positioning Australian English among other major varieties.