5. 1.1 Linguistic causesChanges of

5. 1.1 Linguistic causesChanges of meaning may be occasioned by the frequent collocation of two or more words. That is, if words frequently occur together in the same speech-context.，(part of) the meaning of one may be transferred to the other, and eventually this transferred sense may come to belong to the 'receiving" word even in the absence of the 'donating' word. It is well known that many of the negative words of Romance were originally positive in sense but acquired their negative value by frequent collocation with the negative particle NON and its descendants. In the Latin of Spain and some other areas, the phrase HOMINE NATU, literally 'a man born', first acquired the sense"anyone (at all)'; in combination with NON, it therefore meant 'no one(at all)', and this sense eventually predominated even in the absence of NON. Early Old Spanish shows examples of omne nado in the sense 'no one', but through ellipsis(see 5.2.4) nado alone is then found with this meaning. Subsequent modification of the form of nado (see 3.55) produces Osp. and Msp. nadie.