Section 16.6 Other Notable Structures
Three additional structures deserve attention before you move on: comparatives, questions, and negation. You use all three constantly, yet each involves grammatical machinery that is more intricate than it appears on the surface. Comparatives deploy special words like than and as in ways that often involve ellipsis. Questions require subject-auxiliary inversion—a departure from the default subject-verb order that defines English declaratives. Negation inserts not and, when no auxiliary is present, generates the auxiliary do to carry it. These structures round out the grammatical inventory you have been building throughout this course.
Comparative Constructions.
Comparatives use special structures:
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She is taller than he (is).
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She runs as fast as her brother (does).
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The more you practice, the better you get.
Questions.
Questions have distinctive word order:
Yes-no questions (subject-auxiliary inversion):
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Statement: She can swim.
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Question: Can she swim?
Wh-questions (the wh-word moves to the front + inversion):
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Statement: She read something.
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Question: What did she read?
Negation.
Negation typically involves not with an auxiliary:
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She does not understand.
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They have not arrived.
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He cannot come.
With no auxiliary, do is inserted:
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She understands. → She does not understand.
