| Most approaches to Negative Polarity Item Licensing (NPI licensing) analyze it as a c-commanding phenomenon, realized at Logical Form (LF). This thesis argues for another option, the NPI licensing is the result of Phonetic Form (PF) constraint, represented by linearization order. In support of this, a set of data has been reexamined and uncover two types of feature checking. The first type of feature spells out to both PF and LF, while the second type of feature optionally chooses to spell out to either PF or LF. This proposal is evidenced by the fact that some elements, like "not’in English cannot be accessed in derivation, even though moving not is allowed theoretically, particularly in the model of cyclical linearization. The PF interface is the core to solving the puzzle of NPI licensing under Quantifier Raising in antecedent contained deletion. The optional feature checking operation, finally, gives a novel explanation to this puzzle. |
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