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Constituent (phrase) – any part of a sentence which is regarded as forming a distinct syntactic
unit within the overall structure of the sentence.
For instance, if we were to take the following example:
we can identify the following constituents: Susan, loves, her mother, very much.
Each of the above identified elements can be said to form a distinct syntactic unit, since it has
a certain semantic and structural autonomy inside (1). Consequently, sequences of the kind her mother
very, or Susan loves her cannot be considered constituents, since they do not have a structural and
semantic unity. They are just strings, that is, sequences fragmented at random.
(2) Give Susan the money and then send her away!
(Dă-i banii lui Susan şi apoi trimite-o de aici!)
syntactically we are dealing with a compound sentence (where two main clauses are coordinated by
and), semantically the two sentences are perceived as sequential (the event in the first sentence is
followed by the one in the second) and pragmatically, we are dealing with a directive (i.e. an order
given to an interlocutor).
Auxiliary verbs – one of a small set of lexical items having certain properties in common with
verbs but also exhibiting a number of other distinct properties. The English auxiliaries are usually
divided into the modal auxiliaries (such as may, must, should, etc.) and the non-modal auxiliaries
(such as have, be).
Insertion – a procedure by which some element not previously present in a structure is added to it.
An example is the insertion of the element do in sentence (3):
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is said to be an assertion, in the sense that it states something, it asserts something. This example can
be compared to:
The difference between example (5) and the examples under (6) is that the latter examples are
non-assertive, in that they do not state anything.
Consequently, a sentence can be non-assertive if it is negative or if it is a question. We do not
therefore have two independent systems:
- Positive vs. Negative
- Declarative vs. Interrogative
but rather an interrelated system in which assertion involves both ‘positive’ and ‘declarative’ while
non-assertion has a subsystem either ‘negative’ or ‘interrogative’. The relationship can be represented
as follows:
assertion - positive and declarative (e.g. They told her the secret.)
In this case, just like in the case of word negation, we speak about local negation in the sense that
the negative word not does not influence more than the first part of the sentence, more precisely the
phrase it is part of. In other words, the whole sentence under (9) has an affirmative dimension and it is
only the phrase not long ago that has a negative connotation. This is also called an instance of phrasal
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negation, since the negative meaning is restricted to one constituent only. Example (10) gives us
however reason to speak about full negation, namely the whole sentence is negative and the word not
influences the whole meaning of the sentence:
The meaning of all these examples is a positive one: (11)a. implies that she was an attractive
woman, (11)b. implies that the guy there was quite intelligent, whereas (11)c. states that I was very
worried about something. In other words, these sentences look negative, since the negative word not is
present inside them, but their meaning tells us a different story. We can say that we are dealing with a
combination of word and phrasal negation, where the word negation (unattractive, without
intelligence, a little worried) is cancelled by the presence of not: not unattractive = attractive.
Another name for the distinction between full negation and local (that is word and phrasal)
negation is supplied by the opposition syntactic vs. semantic negation. By syntactic negation we mean
negation at the level of the sentence (i.e. the whole meaning of the sentence is negative). Semantic
negation will consequently refer to sentence bits with a negative meaning.
Since this course is an attempt to clarify matters related to syntax we shall consider negative
sentences only those sentences that qualify as syntactically negated. This means that negative
sentences need to have a negative word present inside them that will influence the whole meaning of
the respective sentences.
The second sentence has undergone certain syntactic changes, such as do insertion. (see
subsection 1.1.).
Let us now discuss the pragmatic differences between positive and negative sentences:
basically, whenever we utter a negative sentence in a discourse, we imply the existence of its
affirmative counterpart. For instance, in a negative sentence such as:
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(Harry nu a atacat guvernul)
the implicit affirmative sentences existing in correlation to the negative sentences could be: -
The second question that springs to one’s mind is: but how do we tell when a sentence is
negative, since sometimes examples can be so misleading?
An efficient way of doing that was offered by Klima (1964) who distinguishes between four
tests of negativity:
Sentence (14) qualifies as negative, since it is followed by an affirmative question tag, whereas the
sentence under (15) does not: the star placed at the beginning of the tag question indicates that the
structure is ungrammatical, incorrect. The sentence allows only for a negative question tag (see
example (16)) and is syntactically affirmative.
2. Not even-tags – a sentence is syntactically negative if it allows for the presence of a not even-tag :
(17) Susan does not like her friends, not even the smart ones.
(Lui Susan nu-i place de prietenii ei, nici măcar de cei deştepţi.)
(18) Susan dislikes / likes her friends, *not even the smart ones.
(19) Susan dislikes/ likes her friends, even the smart ones.
Example (17) is syntactically negative, as is demonstrated by the presence of the not even tag.
Compare this example to those under (18) and (19), which exhibit samples of affirmative sentences,
since the not even tag cannot be applied to them.
(20) Susan does not like her friends, and they don’t like her either.
(Lui Susan nu îi place de prietenii ei şi nici lor nu le place de ea.)
(21) Susan dislikes / likes her friends, * and they don’t like her either.
Sentence (20) is syntactically negative because the either conjoining is possible, which does
not happen in the case of (21), which is ungrammatical.
(22) Susan doesn’t like her friends, and neither do they like her.
(Lui Susan nu îi place de prietenii ei şi nici lor nu le place de ea.)
(23) Susan likes / dislikes her friends, *and neither do they like her.
Sentence (22) is syntactically negative since it can be combined with a neither tag, whereas
sentence (23) is syntactically affirmative since its combination with neither is obviously impossible.
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In conclusion, whenever one wishes to check whether a certain sentence is negative from a
syntactic point of view, they need to refer to these tests of negativity. By applying these tests to the
sentence in question, one can tell if the sentence is negative or not.
The negative word not has been inserted inside the sentences under (23) and (24). This kind of
negation is the most frequent one in English. A variation to this instance of negation is offered by
those sentences in which the negative word is attached to the auxiliary verb by means of contraction:
In example (27) negation is incorporated in the determiner (that is the article) of the direct
object.
In sentence (29) the negative word has been incorporated in the adverb of place.
All the sentences discussed here are variants for:
c) negative attraction (the negative word is attracted by the nominal phrase in the first position of the
sentence; no incorporation takes place.)
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b. Not a day passed without me thinking of him.
(N-a trecut o zi fără să mă gândesc la el.)
It is obvious that in such examples the negative word not has been ‘attracted’ by the nominal
phrase in sentence initial position. The sentences under (31) may be paraphrased by means of negative
insertion or incorporation:
The fact that these sentences may be paraphrased by means of other negative sentences makes
us believe that the process of attraction is optional not obligatory.
There are other instances of negation that do not necessarily fall under the criterion we mentioned
above (that of the position of the negative word inside the sentence).
- incomplete negation (negation in the sentence is made by means of the so-called incomplete
negators such as hardly, scarcely, barely, seldom, rarely, etc.) – the sentences that contain
these negators are also considered syntactically negative, because they pass all the tests for
negativity presented in 1.4.:
- emphatic negation (emphasis is laid by placing the negative word or the incomplete negator
in the first position inside the sentence, which triggers inversion):
- negative transportation (the negative word is transported to the main clause from a
subordinate that clause where it originates and belongs semantically):
For instance, sentence (38)
by undergoing a process of negative transportation. As you can see from the translation of these
examples, the phenomenon is the same in Romanian. The difference between (38) and (39) is a
pragmatic one, in the sense that the original sentence (38) is stronger from the point of view of its
negative force. In sentence (39), the negative meaning is less strong.
Negative transportation is optional and may appear with verbs of opinion, intention,
probability, etc.: think, believe, imagine, suppose, guess, expect, seem, appear, look like, sound/feel
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like, intend, choose, want, be probable, be likely, be supposed to, ought to, should be desirable, advise,
suggest, etc.
In the above examples, I underlined the phrases (not) to lift a finger and at all that are specific
for the negative context. They are not usable in an affirmative environment, and sentences such as:
are clearly not grammatical. This means that the negative word not is so powerful that it literally
imposes the presence of certain elements (such as lift a finger or at all) in its vicinity.
These elements that can appear only in non-assertive contexts (see section1.2. for the definition of
assertive/ non-assertive) are called negative polarity items. They are lexical items (that is words and
phrases) and are sensitive to the polarity of the sentence (namely to the assertive or non-assertive
nature of the respective sentence).
The phenomenon is not restricted to English only as one can come up with examples of such
items from Romanian:
The fact that the italicized phrases above are indeed negative polarity items is demonstrated by their
inadequacy in an assertive context. It is incorrect to say:
Negative polarity items are sometimes paralleled by Affirmative Polarity Items, that is by
items that can appear only in assertive contexts. That is exactly why, we can speak of pairs of
Negative and Affirmative Polarity items:
There are cases when Polarity Items work in pairs (such as still and any more) and cases when
there are only Negative Polarity Items (lift a finger, budge, etc) or Affirmative ones (would rather).
Normally, Negative Polarity Items are more numerous than Affirmative ones, and this is helped by the
fact that they can appear in any context that is non-assertive: they can appear in negative sentences, but
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also in interrogative ones (Have you seen anyone?) or in If-clauses (If you have anything to say, say
it.)
In the case of the sentence under (48) there are two negative words in concord, which is not
the case of the sentence under (47). Romanian is therefore a negative –concord language and we can
safely say that Substandard English – that uses double negation – exhibits negative concord, as well:
The examples of double negation that are so frequent in Substandard English need not be,
however, mistaken for the so-called ample negatives, that are instances of Standard English:
The example above is a sample of Standard English, in that it does not in fact contain two
negative words in the same sentence. The second negation is somehow independent; it is just a copy of
the first one for the sake of emphasis. The sentence under (50) is a rephrased emphatic variant of: