Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
2.Translate the following sentences into English, paying attention to the distinction
between full and local negation:
Nu era lipsită de graţie şi de frumuseţe. / Când a aflat vestea, nu s-a simţit deloc
încântat. / Nu cu multă vreme în urmă, toată lumea călătorea cu trăsura. / I-a trebuit nu
puţină iscusinţă să rezolve problema. / Nu îl preferă pe John în mod special. / Îl preferă
pe John, dar nu în mod special. / Nu era neobişnuit de deştept. / Era neobişnuit de
şmecher. / Era el destul de isteţ, dar nu neobişnuit. / Deloc interesat de conferinţă,
domnul Jones s-a ridicat şi a plecat din sală. / Domnul Jones nu era deloc interesat de
discuţiile din sală. / Nu tocmai convinşi de ceea ce auziseră, cei doi fraţi şi-au luat inima
în dinţi şi au protestat. / Nu erau nelămuriţi, ci doar indecişi. / Nu neg că această culoare
mă prinde de minune. / A negat cu tărie orice legătură cu crima comisă cu o seară
înainte. / Nu mică i-a fost mirarea să vadă cât de bine se înţelegeau cei doi.
3. Say whether the following are instances of local or sentence negation by using the
tests for negativity above:
I don’t know much about him. / I can hardly understand what they are saying. / You have
never met her. / I haven’t ever seen such a thing. / Should they not have told her the
truth? / Not infrequently, they go skiing in the mountains. / In no time he was able to
solve the problem. / At no time was he able to solve the problem. / Not always a witty
interlocutor, Jim felt rather at a loss for words. / They caused us no problems. / No
problems were caused after all. / This boy is no good. / Few of them stayed behind. / A
few of them stayed behind.
4. Distinguish between the sentences which exhibit negative insertion or contraction,
negative attraction and negative incorporation:
They didn’t send many students abroad. / I showed him nothing. / Not many women are
famous opera composers. / Not a word fell from her lips. / She said not a word when I
spoke to her. / It didn’t take him a minute to tell her the secret. / Not a minute did it take
him to tell her the secret. / No one ever listens to her. / None of them liked house music. /
Not one of them came to meet her./ They didn’t come to meet her. / I saw nobody. / I
didn’t see anybody./ They never went there./ They didn’t ever tell her what bothered
them. / He should not be released.
5. Paraphrase the following instances of incomplete negation by means of negative
insertion, negative attraction or negative incorporation:
I can barely look into his eyes. / I could hardly wait to hear the news. / This is hardly the
time to buy yourself a new fur coat. / I scarcely ever see her. / Hardly anybody liked
him. / You’ve eaten hardly anything. / I seldom look at her like that. / Few people came
to see her. / You can hardly blame me for your mistakes. / I hardly ever look at those
paintings
Rephrase the following sentences making them emphatic:
I shall never, never trust a man again. / One can have peace in life only by avoiding them
altogether. / A truer word has seldom been spoken! / This nation scarcely ever in the past
faced so great a danger. / There is rarely an opportunity for us to serve the community in
this way. / Nothing like that ever happened in our street before./ We seldom receive such
generous praise. / Ann gave him the use of her flat and lent him a car as well. / She had
no idea he was a man on the run from the police./ We never thought he was that sort of
fellow. / We little suspected when we started our holiday that it would be like this. / You
rarely see such an outstanding bargain. / You shouldn’t wander away from the path under
any circumstances. / I didn’t leave the office at any time. / You must on no account touch
this machinery. / She could rely on nobody but him. / We not only ran into the fog but it
began to rain. / The keys couldn’t be found anywhere.
6.Give the negative / positive counterpart of the following sentences; identify the polarity
items:
We have already had some snow this winter. / They say he once had someone very
close. / Come on, you can still do something about it. / We will see them again
somewhere sometime. / We were somehow surprised by that sudden appearance. / Well, I
hope he’s somewhat wiser now. / I somewhat like his proposal. / I think I can help him
(to) some (extent). / Don’t worry, it will stop hurting before tomorrow. / Susan got a
passing grade in English and her friend did, too. / Alice doesn’t live here any longer/
more. / I don’t feel any better for having had a holiday. / Well, I’m afraid her husband
was never any good. / You needn’t send her anything. / She hardly ever comes here. /This
experiment has revealed something of importance already. / Bob is still living at that
address. / I can understand both of these sentences./ I can understand all of these ten
English words. / Hundreds of students can find somewhere comfortable to live® / Some
of the questions on this test he knew how to answer. / Peter knows some English and so
does John./ Both John and Peter have pretty wives. / Daddy drinks a lot of coffee and
now he misses it quite badly. / I nearly always have to clean it myself. / Almost everyone
of them did well on that exam. / You must pay that fine. / You must be telling lies.
SYNTAX NEGATION home assignment
1.Translate into English, paying attention to the following Negative Polarity Items:
Budge, flinch, bat an eye(lid), give a damn/darn, find a trace, hear a peep, hurt a fly, last a
minute, crack a smile, turn a hair, sleep a wink, touch a drop, leave a stone unturned,
lift/raise/ stir a finger, lay a finger on someone, touch her/him with a ten-foot pole, move
a muscle, see/ feel/ remember a thing, tell/ ask/speak to a soul, say / breathe/ understand a
word, know a single person, have a care/ friend in the world, have/be worth a red cent.
Ion nu e prea deştept, de fapt nimeni din familia lor nu e prea deştept. / N-a putut face el
aşa ceva! Nu e el chiar aşa de deştept! / Nu ştiu ce s-a întâmplat cu ea; n-am văzut-o de
ani de zile. / Ajută-mă, te rog! Nu pot să clintesc din loc pietroiul ăsta. / Se spune că acest
doctor în ştiinţe n-a studiat niciodată nimic nicăieri. / Nouă nu ne-a spus nimeni nimic,
nici unuia dintre noi. / Sunt convinsă că Mark nu s-a deranjat să telefoneze. / Jim e atât
de curajos! Nici n-a clipit măcar o dată. N-a zis nici pâs când doctorul i-a pansat rana. /
Arăţi atât de obosită azi! -Nu e de mirare, n-am închis un ochi toată noaptea (n-am lipit
geană de geană). / A: Bei un pahar de vin? B: Nu, mulţumesc, de când cu ulcerul ăsta, nu
mai pun picătură în gură înainte de masă. / A: Te-a afectat desigur foarte mult plecarea
lui. B: Aşi, nu-mi pasă câtuşi de puţin dacă se întoarce sau nu. / Poliţia a scotocit peste
tot, n-a lăsat cotlon necercetat, încercând să prindă criminalul. / Hotărât lucru, i se
întâmplase ceva îngrozitor, dar ea nu-şi mai amintea absolut nimic şi nu scotea o vorbă. /
Nu ştiu de ce plânge, nu e vina mea, n-am atins-o nici cu un deget! / Era singurul care ar
fi putut s-o facă, dar n-a mişcat un deget să-i salveze! / Era un om tare, a primit vestea
morţii fiului său fără să clipească! / E un om fericit. N-are nici o grijă pe lume, dar nici
para chioară în buzunar. / Nu te lua după el! Părerea lui nu face nici două parale! / Scena
era atât de caraghioasă, încât nu-şi putea ţine râsul. / Să fiu al naibii dacă mai vorbesc cu
el vreodată! / A: A sunat clopoţelul? B: Nu, n-a sunat încă.