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Sentential Negation in English
Abstract
This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of sentential negation in the English language with Chomsky's Government-Binding theory of Transformational Grammar as theoretical model. It distinguishes between constituent and sentential negation in English. The essay identifies the exact position of Negation phrase in an English clause structure. It observes that insertion of "do-support" as last resort meant to derive sentential negation from a declarative that lacks an auxiliary verb is a language specific derivation peculiar to the English language. The paper also analyzes the contraction of "not" to "n't" and its conjoining to an auxiliary verb acting as its host. It observes that this phenomena takes place only when the auxiliary verb is a bound form. The contacted "not" is always bound to its host to form a double head which is fronted in the derivation of a Yes/No question. (Contains 4 notes.)
This paper is a contrastive study of Sentential Negation in English and Izon languages. Contact language situations have given rise not only to the influences of one language over the other but also to the differences between the structures of the two languages in contact and the likely learning difficulties which an L1 learner of a second language may likely encounter in learning the structure of the L2. Thus, the data for this study were sourced from competent native speakers of the Ogbe-Ijo dialect of the Izon language and a contrastive approach was adopted using the Chomskyan's Government and Binding theory as a theoretical framework with a view to identifying the structural variations, hierarchy of difficulties and the likely learning problems an Izon learner of English as a second language may encounter at the level of Negation. It discovers that there were obvious parametric variations between the English and Izon languages at the levels of do insertion and the negative particle not among others. It then recommends that conscious efforts should be made by teachers and Izon learners / speakers of English as a second language at the level of realisation of negation in English as a second language.
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