The negatives in Dunhuang Bianwen are classified and analyzed in this thesis. The discussion is divided into three topics--monosyllabic negatives, polysyllabic negatives and double negation, and each part is classified according to specific criteria, and analyzed in terms of several respects. In the monosyllabic negatives part, it is shown that most of the negatives have "negative+VP" distribution. And the positions between the negatives and other elements in a sentence, i. e., auxiliaries, adverbs, and prepositional phrases, are closely related to the scope notion of the negatives. In addition, the scope of negatives can be defined clearly and be adequately explained in terms of the c-command notion and tree diagrams. In the polysyllabic negatives part, the phenomena of lexical poly-syllabification during this period is exemplified by means of some compounds and the special usage of negatives, such as A-not-A question and resultative verb compounds. Furthermore, the scope of the polysyllabic negatives can only be shown in morphological units. As to double negation, its main firnction is to add rhetoric emphasis to a sentence. In this thesis, the scope of negatives can be well explained by the c-command notion, but the c-command relation involved in double negation is more complicated than the monosyllabic negatives. Apart from the discussion on the three topics, the frequency of the negatives in Dunhuang Bianwen is listed in each section. In the conclusion chapter, the differences and similarities among monosyllabic negatives, polysyllabic negatives, and double negation are also discussed.
