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A. The Structure of the VERB ELEMENT can contain a lexical verb plus upto FOUR
auxiliaries
eat/eats/ate
is /was eating
has/had eaten
Has/had been eating
Might/ may have been eating
Might/may have been being eaten
Also represented by :
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.
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.]
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