LINGUIST List 21.2821 Wed Jul 07 2010 Disc: On Comparative Inversions Editor for this issue: Elyssa Winzeler <elyssalinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Dong-woo Park, On Comparative Inversions Message 1: On Comparative Inversions Date: 06-Jul-2010 From: Dong-woo Park <pdw83snu.ac.kr> Subject: On Comparative Inversions E-mail this message to a friend Culicover and Winkler (2008) in Journal of Linguistics says that more than one auxiliary can precede a subject in comparative inversion structures as follows. A. ANNA ran much faster than could have MANNY. B. ANNA ran much faster than MANNY could have. It is also suggested that in order for the sentence A to be grammatical, there are two premises. The first one is MANNY should be a contrastive focus. And the second one is MANNY must receive a strong falling pitch accent. However, a lot of native speakers whose mother tongue is English say that sentence A is ungrammatical. I know that this sentence is rather marginal. So I am not sure whether I can examine this kind of comparative inversion in my paper as a main topic. I would appreciate any input others may have on this matter. Linguistic Field(s): Syntax Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 07-Jul-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.