This book offers cross-linguistic data on negative polarity, reflexive binding and the subjunctive mood and proposes a unified analysis for various languages. It can be used as a textbook for intermediary or advanced courses in syntax and semantics, especially courses dealing with negative polarity, binding, or syntax/semantics interfaces in general. The discussion presupposes acquaintance with only an elementary syntax text, such as Haegeman's or Radford's introduction to the syntactic theory.

The monograph is based on my (1988) dissertation “A Binding Approach to Polarity Sensitivity”, although it has been considerably modified and updated. There are three major additions to the dissertation: (i) a novel treatment of the subjunctive mood, as involving deletion of functional categories Infl and Comp in LF (chapter 6); (ii) the discussion of the Relativized SUBJECT approach to long-distance anaphora (section 0.2); and (iii) an overview of the basic issues in Serbian/Croatian syntax (section 1.1.). Moreover, the monograph provides a discussion of some recent developments in the treatment of negative polarity, such as Zanuttini (1991) and Laka (1990), especially concerning the analysis of negative concord.

I am indebted to many people for their valuable help with the dissertation. The deepest thanks go to my advisor, Joseph Aoun, who at the same time taught, directed, and inspired, and continues to do so. For their precious comments, I owe a great deal to Marc Authier, Mürvet Enç, Irene Heim, Larry Hyman, Osvaldo Jaeggli, Audrey Yen-Hui Li, and Dominique Sportiche.