Inversion and fronting for correlative conjunctions

Question

I'm an English teacher from Brazil, but I have some questions regarding Inversion and fronting, especially when it comes to correlative conjunctions since I couldn't find many materials about it on the internet.

When making an inversion with a correlative conjunction such as neither/ nor, do we need to use question order in both sentences? Like:

Neither do I like meat, nor does he like lettuce

for example?

Or it is a matter of whether I am using the same subject or a different one?

If the sentence were

Neither do I like meat, nor lettuce

would it be correct in this case, since the subject is the same on both correlatives?

Also, is it possible to use inversion and fronting together? For example:

Here do I go

Well, I hope I made myself clear, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Without worrying too much about the details, I will note that these sorts of constructions have fallen out of common use, and using them will call unwelcome attention. They are the sort of thing one might associate with 18th and 19th century British literature. Very formal and somewhat pretentious.

"Neither do I like meat, nor does he like lettuce" would more likely (preserving the construction) be "Neither do I like meat, nor he lettuce", while a more mainstream version would be "I don't like meat and he doesn't like lettuce." The electrical engineer geek in me cannot resist pointing out that this is a demonstration of DeMorgan's Theorem, which you can look up.

And "Here do I go." would be used as an intensifier for the phrase "I go here." The deliberately embellished statement declares that the speaker is really serious about going "here" and wants the listener to be aware of it. You might find it in a speech, along the lines of "Here do I stand, and I will not be moved."

Answer 2

• Neither do I like meat, nor he like lettuce.

would only be used in the English of today (and then, rarely) after a preceding negative statement:

• Our food fads? Well, John does not like fish. Neither do I like meat, nor he lettuce.

It would be more idiomatic just to string negative independent clauses joined by and's together (but note the deletions here, which at least give a slightly better-sounding variant. And yes, there needs to be a second inversion, with the [does] between nor and he understood.)

• Neither do I like meat, nor lettuce.

is correct, with the deletions [do I like] ... but again, fairly rarefied. Perhaps literary.

.............

• Here do I go.

sounds outlandish, perhaps especially with 'Here I go' being a fixed phrase.

• And here do I take my stand / rest / stay / ....

sound like something one might read in a work from say the 1650s (Bunyan, or an old hymn, say); one must really be tongue-in-cheek to come out with this phraseology nowadays. Handle with great care (or not at all).