The absence of verb-movement and the role of C: Some negative constructions in Shakespeare

The paper lists and discusses all occurrences of an infrequent construction in Shakespearean English, namely one where not precedes (rather than follows) the finite main verb, without the auxiliary do to support the negation. This construction has been neglected or, when it is mentioned, has been left unexplained in traditional grammar. I show that in all these constructions a CP is overtly present. Thus, rather than being an anomaly, the construction provides insight into the clause structure: When a CP is included, an IP is not always present (for the verb to move to across not) and agreement is checked through covert features attraction to C.