(^152) Chapter 8 Negation and related phenomena
[7] VERBAL NEGATION NON-VERBAL NEGATION
a. She didn 't tell me anything. b. She told me nothing.
ii a. She does not live here any more. b. She no longer lives here.
Verbal negation is marked either by negative inflection on the verb, as in [ia], or
by modification of the verb by the separate word not, as in [iia].
3.1 Verbal negation
The grammatical significance of the distinction between verbal and non
verbal negation is that verbal negation requires the insertion of the dummy auxil
iary do under certain conditions, whereas non-verbal negation never does. This
difference is evident in [7] above, where do is required in the [a] examples but not
the [b] ones.Conditions for the insertion of dummy do with verbal negation
(a) In clauses with a primary verb-form
Negative clauses of this kind require the presence of an auxiliary verb. If there is no
auxiliary in the corresponding positive clause, formation of the negative involves
the insertion of do as described in Ch. 3, §3.1, and illustrated in [8]:[8] POSITIVE
a. She is lenient with them
ii a. She rejected his offer.NEGATIVE
b. She isn 't lenient with them.
b. She didn 't reject his offer.In [ia] be is an auxiliary verb, so we do NOT insert do when negating the clause.
In [iia] reject is a lexical verb, so we must insert do to form the negative.(b) In imperative clauses
Imperative clauses with verbal negation ALWAYS require do:
[9] a. Be lenient with them.
ii a. Reject his offer.b. Don 't be lenient with them.
b. Don 't reject his offer.Notice, then, the difference between [9ib] and [8ib]: do is added in the imperative,
but not in the declarative.
Inflectional verb-form vs not
We said that verbal negation is marked either by negative inflection on the verb
itself or by using the separate word not to modify the verb. Inflectional negation is
admissible only in those constructions where dummy do occurs (under the condi
tions described above): that is, in clauses with a primary verb-form and in impera
tive clauses, as illustrated in [8] and [9] respectively. Elsewhere, neither do nor neg
ative inflection is permitted, as seen in the subjunctive clauses in [10]: