Negative Inversion as Nonmovement

Abstract

Abstract. In a substantial body of work, negative inversion (NT) is argued to be movement of a verb toward a negative expression and out of IP/AgrP. NI constructions are claimed to work in parallel with w/h ‐questions. This paper offers an AgrP‐internal account of NI constructions, which is consistent with positing a simpler CP layer. I argue here that there is no attraction of the verb to the negative expression (i.e., no Negative Criterion) and that the apparent inversion is impeded movement where the elements involved (verb and subject) fail to arrive at the normal declarative surface positions. It is demonstrated that such an analysis accounts straightforwardly for a variety of phenomena that require complexity or dual analysis in IP/AgrP‐external approaches to NI.