Re: English V2

And not only is it used with 'wh-questions' and 'not
only' as well as just the negative 'not' but it also
happens with negative words like 'seldom' and 'rarely'


I have seen...
Seldom have I seen...

He was...
Rarely was he....

Elliott


--- Shreyas Sampat <ssampat@...> wrote:
> > > Not only they are, but I've received some of
> your mails more than
> > > once.
> >
> > I've been trying to think up an example like this
> for days,
> > and this just dropped out of the blue.  Well, it
> dropped from
> > the mouth of Christophe, but that's not the point.
>  As a
> > native English speaker, "Not only they are..."
> sounds
> > terrible, whereas "Not only are they..." sounds
> just fine.
> > Either way I'd use a second clause that is more in
> line with
> > this, but again, not my point.
> >
> > What I'm wondering is this: Am I seeing some
> remnant of V2
> > structure here? It seems like the verb has to be
> the second
> > piece, after the "not only" phrase, but it just
> seems right.
> > Any thoughts?
>
> Thought:
>
> This is perfectly ordinary English; it happens in
> negation and
> wh-questions too.  Basically, the agreement moves up
> to follow the
> operator, whatever it may be; a small set of verbs
> (those that can be
> used as auxiliaries) are capable of moving up there
> as well.
>
> Examples:
> She is sick.
> Not only is she sick...
>
> She fell down.
> Not only did she fall down...
>
> Stop!
> Don't stop!
>
> Who took out the garbage?
> Who didn't take out the garbage?
>
> What did Pitr trip on?
>
> ---
> Shreyas Sampat

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