On the Relevance of Tense for Sentential Negation

Abstract

Abstract Much recent work has focused on the issue of which functional categories are present in a sentential structure. Both Moro (1987) and Pollock (1989), independently and on the basis of quite different considerations, suggest that in Romance and in English the Infl node should be split into two components, a Tense Phrase and an Agreement Phrase. Kitagawa (1986, section 2.4.3) argues for the existence of a negative head in Japanese, an idea extended to Romance by Kayne (1989a:242) and to English by Pollock (1989), who suggest that sentential negative markers can be analyzed as belonging to a Negative Phrase. Rivero (1994) proposes the existence of a functional projection of a modal or aspectual nature in the Balkan languages. Shlonsky (1989), based on facts from Semitic languages, suggests that the functional category Agreement Phrase should be further split into three distinct components— PersonP, NumberP and GenderP.