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A unified analysis of negative inversion sentences in African American English

Posted on:1999-09-06Degree:M.AType:Thesis
University:Michigan State UniversityCandidate:Sistrunk, Walter Lee, JrFull Text:PDF
GTID:2465390014471289Subject:Language
Abstract/Summary:
This thesis provides a unified analysis of Negative Inversion (NI) constructions in African American English. Earlier analyses done by Labov (1972) Sells, Rickford, and Wasom, (1996), and Weldon (1997) argue that two analyses are needed because expletive subjects are not allowed in sentences containing a madol auxiliary. It is shown that all NI sentences must adhere to the definiteness restriction, and therefore, the subjects must be VP-internal in all NI sentences. Lasnik's (1995) argument is ultilized to show that Negative Inversion sentences are like the existential sentences of Standard English in that both the expletive subject and its associate need to be assigned Case independently. I argue that expletives cannot appear in certain Negative Inversion sentences in African American English because of Case requirements. Modal auxiliaries, unlike the copula verb be cannot assigne partitive Case. In these cases, the associate must raise at Lf to be assigned Case, and the expletive cannot appear. This allows all NI constructions to be given a unified analysis which does not involve inversion at all.
Keywords/Search Tags:Unified analysis, Inversion, African american, English
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