Why is it that with negative questions the contraction comes before the subject but when the question doesn’t have a contraction the subject comes between the auxiliary verb and the subject?

I think what k2voy means is this:

Aren’t you coming to dinner?
Are you not coming to dinner?

Isn’t she sweet?
Is she not sweet?

Don’t you like my new purple suit?
Do you not like my new purple suit?

Interesting question, actually. The answer? I have not the foggiest.  :)

- PW

It is not just with ‘do’ as in "Why don’t you do your homework?/Why do you not do your homework?" but apparently with any helping verb—"Why wouldn’t/couldn’t/shouldn’t they do that?",etc.

The reason I ask is that I tell  people learning English to stay clear of contractions when speaking  because they so often mispronounce them they are often not understood.  

Learners need to recognize contractions because native speakers use them so much but they seem more trouble than they are worth when trying to communicate.

But when it comes to negative questions this whole argument dissolves.

So,  what’s the grammatical explanation for this?

This can be answered with transformational linguistics.  

You take the kernal sentence: she is sweet

Then you apply transformations to the sentence.  Transformations have a specific order to them, and the contraction transformation occurs before the question transformation.

To get:
Isn’t she sweet?
The order is Negative transformation , Contraction transformation , Question transformation so since the contraction has joined not to the verb, it moves with the verb in the Question transformation

To get:
Is she not sweet?
The order is Negative Ttransformation,  Question transformation  
but you have not emplyed the Contraction transformation  in the meantime, so not does not move with the verb during the Question transformation

Good explanation, rosewoman. Difficult to explain to a non-linguist learner of English, but still.

Then there’s the whole issue of the "do" construction, which almost causes as many headaches globally as vodka (my guess).

Let’s take "Alice eats fruitcake".

According to the transformation theory, the kernal sentence would have to be "Alice does eat fruitcake" in order for the Negative, Contraction, Question transformations to work.

1. Alice does not eat fruitcake.
2. Alice doesn’t eat fruitcake.
3. Doesn’t Alice eat fruitcake.

So at the deep structural level (and do correct me if my thinking is muddled), we’d have something like:

[SUBJECT] [POSITIVE MARKER] [TRANSITIVE ACTION WORD] [OBJECT]

Which boils down to saying that the verb itself has neither a positive nor a negative value at the deep structural level and that the + or - marker is always there, even if it’s dropped at the surface level if the marker is positive.

Sure sounds a bit fishy to me.

Professor Chomsky?  ;D

- PW

Sounds good PW.  Want to tackle tag questions?

You’re joking, aren’t you?

;D

- PW

[quote author=Palewriter link=board=grammar;num=1049661956;start=0#7 date=04/07/03 at 15:15:27]You’re joking, aren’t you?

;D

- PW

Oh, yes.

[quote author=rosewoman link=board=grammar;num=1049661956;start=0#4 date=04/07/03 at 13:32:42]This can be answered with transformational linguistics.  

You take the kernal sentence: she is sweet

Then you apply transformations to the sentence.  Transformations have a specific order to them, and the contraction transformation occurs before the question transformation.

To get:
Isn’t she sweet?
The order is Negative transformation , Contraction transformation , Question transformation so since the contraction has joined not to the verb, it moves with the verb in the Question transformation

Maybe a more concrete, worked example would make it clearer.  I’m not a linguist, especially transformation-generative (If Dr. Macris is not still alive he’ll be rolling over in his grave.   ), but I’ll give it a shot:

She is sweet.   Kernal sentence

She is not sweet.  Negative transformation

She isn’t sweet.   Contraction transformation

Isn’t she sweet?   Question transformation

. . . so since the contraction has joined not to the verb, it moves with the verb in the Question transformation

To get:
Is she not sweet?

She is sweet.  Kernal sentence

She is not sweet.   Negative transformation

Is she not sweet?   Question transformation

. . . but you have not emplyed the Contraction transformation  in the meantime, so not does not move with the verb during the Question transformation

Works for me, Stargeezer.

It’s elegant, is it not?

;D

- PW

Elegant, ain’t it?

Forking A, Silver.  ;D

- PW

Spoken like a True Uhmuruhkun!

At least an Anglo-Scandinavian Neo-Texan ‘merkan and a genuEYEne green-card holder to boot.

- PW
What’s worse than a dollgarn Yankee? A dollgarn Yankee that’s still kickin’.  ;D

[quote author=Palewriter link=board=grammar;num=1049661956;start=0#14 date=05/09/03 at 00:49:28]...and a genuEYEne green-card holder to boot.

It looks (from your avatar) like you’re more of a green ball holder to nose...

-Tim

[quote author=Palewriter link=board=grammar;num=1049661956;start=0#10 date=05/07/03 at 21:37:47]Works for me, Stargeezer.

It’s elegant, is it not?

;D

- PW

While we’re talking about contractions, that reminds me of a tour guide at Skyline Caverns many years ago.  He pointed out a rock formation that looked like a bear’s head, dripping liquid.  "This is Smokey the Bear.  Most people think that’s water in his nose, but it’s not."