We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
The syntax of negative constructions in early modern English and present-day English: A principles and parameters approach.
- Authors
Morapedi, Setumile
- Abstract
The paper has examined negative constructions in Early Modern English and compared them with negatives in Present-day English, showing that there are parametric variations in the positions occupied by the negative form not. EME sometimes uses the negative form not with the main verbs, whereas Present-day English always negates through the use of auxiliary verbs. Where there is no auxiliary verb, the dummy do is used as a last resort (Chomsky 1995). Previous studies have not conducted any serious study on the differences in the negative constructions of the two languages. I appeal to the Principles and Parameters Theory by Chomsky (1993,) which can provide a better analysis of the parametric variations of negative phrases in the EME and Present-day English. Principles and Parameters theory maintains that grammatical differences between languages can be characterised in terms of a restricted set of parameters.
- Subjects
EARLY modern English language; ENGLISH language; ENGLISH auxiliary verbs; VERBS; PRINCIPLES &; parameters (Linguistics); ENGLISH language terms &; phrases
- Publication
NAWA Journal of Language & Communication, 2017, Vol 11, Issue 1, p108
- ISSN
1993-3835
- Publication type
Article