Revision as of 01:53, 23 January 2014

negation

form

• not or n't

The rules are relatively simple.

• not becomes n't when attached to an auxiliary which is not itself abbreviated.
  • I've not heard much. // I haven't heard much.
  • I'm not sure. // I ain't going. (ain't is fairly widespread colloquial American)
• I personally do not combine n't with may or might, though there is nothing particularly wrong with "mightn't" even if it is relatively infrequent. (compare at google: couldn't // mayn't)

The apostrophe has two uses in English: it represents a missing letter:

• the "o" of not
• the "a" of are (You're, We're, They're)
• the "a" of am (I'm (I am))
• the "ha" of "have" (I've (I have))
• the "i" of "is" (it's (It is))

or it represents possession: Sofiane's / Luke's / Zeke's / Mohammed's / the students' notebooks. (cf. genitive case)

Counselor: You couldn't have known that Doug wasn't coming.

Therapist: I didn't know; and I wouldn't have re-arranged my schedule if I hadn't thought he would be there.
Counselor: He hasn't been coming to those meetings for several weeks. Therapist: I won't make the same mistake twice. Next time, if he isn't coming, I ain't going either! Counselor: We should send the secretary a message Thursday, don't you think, just to confirm? Therapist: Oh, you mustn't have heard, the secretary resigned yesterday. Counselor: Oh no, he shouldn't have. I'm not surprised though. He wasn't happy about all the criticism last month. Things may not have been perfect, but at least things got done. Therapist: Absolutely. Back to Doug again. Doesn't he have a cell phone?

Counselor: No.

adverb

Negations of this sort are considered to be adverbs by almost all dictionaries, like the words yes and no. Some Indo-European examples:

• nicht (Germ.)
• non (Lat.)
• pas (Fr.)
• nje (не) (Russ.)

predeterminer

Some deny the existence of determiners (articles, demonstratives, quantifiers), so the idea that a grammatical class such as predeterminers should exist is not always welcomed easily, especially by those who teach what is known in France as la grammaire scolaire.

• Not a one
• Not everybody
• not some time later (6m examples at Google, not a few of which are difficult to evaluate grammatically)
• not a few of which
• not the least of which

In any case, it is clear that the boundaries between adverbs and determination in the noun phrase (particularly deictic determination: today, tomorrow, this, that) are relatively fuzzy. At least four of the examples would clearly seem to be noun phrases.