Negation without Head-Movement

This paper presents a lexicalist analysis of negation inFrench and English. In both languages, negation in finite clausesis grammatically distinguished from constituent negation. Lexicalidiosyncrasy motivates treating finite negation as a verbalcomplement, while constituent negation is treated in terms of afamiliar modifier-head construction. General principles orderinglexical and phrasal heads ensure that negation (the adverbs not and pas) follows the finite verb (the finite auxiliaryverb in English), while only constituent negation appearspreverbally. Our constraint-based account, cast within theframework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), provides a viable alternative (with broader coverage, fewer devices andsimpler principles) to analyses based on head movement,which seek to explain the syntax of negation and adverbial positions in terms of the interaction ofmorphological properties, verb movement, and functionalprojections.