Rethinking Inversion in English Syntax

Abstract

The article deals with some internal theoretical controversies in the concept and the use of the term inversion in English syntax as used in some descriptive and most pedagogical grammars of Modern English. The analysis focuses mainly on the formation of interrogative and emphatic negative structures in English by applying some basic concepts of generative grammar. The aim of the analysis is to explain the transposition of the subject and the verbal predicate by following the Occam Razor' s principle of scientific description requiring the employment of a minimal number of principles and technicalities in the course of analysis which results in higher explanatory adequacy. This aim is achieved through the application of the terms operator and operator fronting in the cases of both obligatory and reversive inversion. The obligatory visualization of the operator in a series of syntactic structures is also discussed and a general rule is formulated.