Abstract
This paper investigates the syntactic rules which define the configurational relationship between a negater and the negated constituent/s in English, a West-Germanic (international) language and Urhobo, a South Western Edoid Nigerian language. The research paradigm is the minimalist program (MP) of generative syntax. The data consists of the relevant English sentences and their Urhobo translation equivalent. The data analysis is guided by the following research question:
What syntactic rules and operations constrain the configurational relationship between a negater and the negated constituent/s and, by implication, determine the scope and focus of negation in English and Urhobo? The following are the findings: A negative sentence is derived in phases. In the first phase, a kernel negative phrase (kNegP) comprising an abstract negater [+NEG] and a lexical constituent is derived via merge in SYNTAX (that is, the computational component of the Language Faculty) and sent off to LF and PF; at PF, the complement of [+NEG] receives an overt spell-out while [+NEG], by being an abstract category, is phonetically null. Subsequently (that is, in the second phase of derivation), the rest of the structure (which instantiates Neg as a phonetically overt category) is derived in SYNTAX and sent off to PF and LF. Depending on the language, Neg may receive an overt phonetic SPELL-OUT either in the domain of negation or outside the domain. Where Neg phonologically occurs outside the domain, its negating feature percolates up to the appropriate node within the domain. Here (that is, in the domain of negation), Neg is sensitive to, and hence targets the complement of [+NEG] in kNegP, irrespective of the structural distance between Neg and kNegP. Thus, the structural position of kNegP relative to the domain position of Neg determines the configurational relationship between a negater and the negated constituent/s.