NEGATION IN ENGLISH

Part I- AUXILIARIES - OPERATORS

A. The Structure of the VERB ELEMENT can contain a lexical verb plus upto FOUR
auxiliaries

AUXILIARY VERBS MAIN VERB

eat/eats/ate
is /was eating
has/had eaten
Has/had been eating
Might/ may have been eating
Might/may have been being eaten

(The last structure is rare)

Also represented by :

Tense (Modal) (PERF. (PROG (PASSIVE VERB

ASPECT) ASPECT) PART.)
Pres/ Past (Will,can, (HAVE- (BE –ing ) (BE –en/ed) Full/lexical verb
may…) en/ed)

B. The first Auxiliary in the Verb Phrase is called the operator

.
It bears the tense, and has a special role in the formation of NEGATIVE, and
INTERROGATIVE, sentences, and in conveying EMPHASIS.

C. OPERATORS AND PRIMARY VERBS : BE, HAVE, DO

The primary verbs – BE, HAVE and DO can function as lexical main verbs or as auxiliaries.
when the main verb is BE or HAVE they can also function as operators. In the absence of an
auxiliary, DO becomes the dummy operator for the formation of negatives, interrogatives and
emphatic sentences.

D. OPERATORS and NEGATIVES: Negatives are formed by adding not / never after the
operator-

1. The cheese may have been eaten by the rat (may is the operator)
2. The cheese may not have been eaten by the rat.
3. The rat did not eat the cheese
PART II –NEGATION

A. EXPRESSIONS of NEGATION
Negation expressed commonly through
a. not and n’t (!- be careful using not with have, dare, need and used)
b. no (for negative responses)
c. never, neither…nor, none, not only, no sooner than,
d. restrictive adverbs and quantifiers : few, little, rarely, seldom, hardly, scarcely, barely
e. verbs with a negative meaning : fail, deny, avoid
f. some prefixes : non- , un-, dis-, etc.

B. The SCOPE of NEGATION –clausal negation; sub-clausal negation; local negation

A negative item may be said to govern (or determine the occurrence of)i , non-assertive item
only if the latter is within the SCOPE of the negative, i.e within the stretch of language over
which the negative item has a semantic influence.
The scope of the negation normally extends from the negative item itself to the end of the
clause. There is thus a contrast between then two sentences:

She definitely didn't speak to him;

['It's definite that she didn't.']
She didn't definitely speak to him
['It's not definite that she did.']

She didn’t explain the problem clearly

She clearly didn’t explain the problem

NOTE : If an assertive form is used, it must lie outside the scope:

He didn’t reply to any of my letters
He didn’t reply to some of my letters
I didn't listen to some of the speakers.
[ie I listened to some.]
I didn't listen to any of the speakers
[ie I listened to none.]

NOTE : When an adjunct is final, it may or may not lie outside the scope:
I wasn’'t listening all the time.
[ie I listened none of the time. / I listened some of the time.]

Local Negation negates a word or phrase without negating the clause:

She’s a not unintelligent woman

He is not unhappy.

C. FOCUS of NEGATION
The focus is signalled in speech by the placement of nuclear stress, which indicates that the
contrast of meaning implicit in the negation is located at that spot while the rest of the clause can
be understood in a positive sense.
D. EMPHASIZING NEGATION THROUGH WORD ORDER - FRONTING
When a negative element (eg. never, neither…nor, none, not only, no sooner than, or restrictive
adverbs such as little, rarely, seldom, hardly, scarcely, barely) applies to the whole clause, and
is “fronted” (placed at the beginning of the sentence) for emphasis, auxiliary inversion must
take place (as with closed questions)

Eg.
Nowadays people no longer go by sea.
No longer do people go by sea nowadays.
BUT:
I flew to Egypt not long ago
Not long ago I flew to Egypt

Because “not long ago” is not a restrictive adverb, its an adverbial phrase of time.

E. NEGATIVE TRANSFER

This normally takes place in sentences with subordinate clauses. A negative in the subordinate
clause is transferred to the matrix clause.

Eg.
I think it isn’t a good idea
I don’t think it is a good idea