The relevant expression containing the negation is underlined, and the subject and finite verb are bolded: When the phrase containing the negation appears in its canonical position to the right of the verb, standard subject-auxiliary word order obtains.
The examples therefore demonstrate that negative inversion is sensitive to how the fronted expression functions within the clause as a whole.
The phrase is separated from its governor in the linear order of words so a discontinuity is perceived.
When the phrase containing the negation is fronted, movement (or copying) is necessary to maintain the strictly binary branching structures, as the tree on that right shows.
To maintain the strictly binary and right branching structure, at least two instances of movement (or copying) are necessary.
The following trees show a similar movement-type analysis, but this time a flatter, dependency-based understanding of sentence structure is now assumed:
The subject and auxiliary verb can easily invert without affecting the basic hierarchy assumed so only one discontinuity is perceived.
The following two trees illustrate a different sort of analysis, one where feature passing occurs instead of movement (or copying):[5]
In this manner, a link of a sort is established between the fronted phrase and the position in which it canonically appears.