Negation (see CGEL 10.54-70) Not-negation: What he says doesn’t make sense 581 To make ee negative, Place not immediately after the Operator (see 609). In English Not is Contracted to n't and t the previous word; ‘agged on to Positive clause Negative clause ~ The conditions are Not (aren't) satisfied by the applicant. The conditions are satisfied by the applicant. | have told the students. ~ | have not (haven't) told the students, In these examples, the positive clause contai can serve as operator (i.e. first auxiliary j is no such operator present, the auxiliai operator. This is called the do-constructi modal auxiliaries, do is followed by the ins an auxiliary (be, have) that In a verb phrase). When there ty do has to be introduced as ion or do-support (see 611). Like bare infinitive: Positive clause Negative clause Sam and Eva like computer games. ~ Sam and Eva do not (don’t) like computer games. What Robert says makes sense. ~ What Robert says does not (doesn’t) make sense. (On the constructions with be and have as main verbs in Negative sen- tences and on the forms of the modal auxiliaries, see 480-5.) Contracted negation: She won't mind. 582 Besides the contracted negative n’t there are contracted verb forms 's for is, ‘re for are, 'Il for will, etc. (see 478). The 321ATION 4 NEG forms can be tagged on to the subject « \ aa * rm, you're, Herb's. onseauently, there are Pon oun) _ one with a contracted y,, 0 fo or short OU on possible ted vert andy hm inform ntacted negative: Othe with @ Full form of verb Contracted me + contracted negative full form OF Te —— ~ It isn’t their fault eit f0 it's not t ~ You haven't You've not read the book, You haven't read the book, how Your have you? she'l not mind if you stay. = She won't mind if you sta, e ~ They aren't in sch They're not in school today, y ‘0! today of contracted forms are used in English, the full forms are used for both ver and negative : It is not their fault, etc. In questions with inversion, not can be Pla é ced afer the ausilary in its contracted form no ater the subjen ise form not: Haven't you written to the publishers? ~ Have you not written to the publishers? Negative pronouns and determiners: There’s no time left, 583 Any-words (see 697) are frequently used after negation, Compare: We have some milk left. ~ We haven't any milk left. Instead of the construction with not-negation and any we may equally well use no: We haven't any milk left. ~ We have no milk left. No is a negative determiner (see 522). In English there are a number of negative expressions with different functions, as can be seen in the table SpPosite, AS the table shows, none can be treated as either singular or Plural as far as concord is concerned (see $13): None of them has arrived. ox None of them have arrived. 322NEGATION FUNCTION cc Fume J COUNT | - PERSONAL | Non, PERSONAL = no one Nothing : - pronoun nobody wothing none (of) pronoun and | neither (of) determiner neither (of) fone (of) pronoun Aone (of) None (of) determiner no ther negative words: Neither of them is correct. 5 ne there are oth i : a besid I no and none ther ther negative words beginning with n, such as neither, never, neither (determiner, pronoun, adverb Of addition, see 234). You've «j J . ‘ou've two answers. Neither is correct. ose neither .. . nor (coordinating conjunction, see 520): Neither the government nor the market can be blamed for the present economic situation, Also, there are certain words which are Negative in meaning and behav- iour although they do not appear Negative in form: barely (‘almost .. -not'): The dormitories could barely house one hundred students. few (‘not many’): Some peo le work very hard but there seem to be few of them left. hardly (almost not): There is hardly any butter left, (almost no butter’) litte (‘not much’): Nowadays, lan seems to be doing very little research rarely (‘almost never’): We now know that things rarely ever work out in such a cut-and-dried fashion, scarcely (‘almost not, almost nothing’): There was scarcely anything Rachel did that did not fascinate me. seldom (‘not often’) : Nature seldom offers such a brilliant spectacle as a solar eclipse. 323NEGATION The effect of 0 585 The usual effect of negative occur negative (but see 261). After @ negative item there are normally any-words instead of ’ some. egative words: Lucy never seems to care, dogs " sl eo? words is to make the whole clause i Negative clauses have ce N which tain ch aracte thst) cs; words (see 6977" ubts about his ability. [positive clause] have any doubts about his ability. [negative clay bts about his ability.) se = fter the baby wakes up 1e who disagrees with me on this po int, - | didn't "had no doul | seldom get any sleep a! t've spoken to hardly anyon @ Negative words are followed by positive rather than negative tag. questions (see 684): | She never seems t© care | does she? | | That won't happen again | will it? | | You won't forget the shopping | wil you? | (Compare: | You'll remember the shopping | won't you? | ) tive item placed at the beginning of a clause brings about the ‘on of subject and operator, i.e. the order is operator + subject: ‘American history has there been 2 @ A negat inversi Rarely in clarified issues less. Never was 2 greater fuss made al Only after a long argument did the committee agree to our plan. {1} ‘There is no inversi political campaign that bout any man than about Lord Byron, ‘on when the negative is part of the subject: to have noticed the escape. The inverted construction, as in [1], sounds rather and “thetorical> (see 417). If the negative item is not placed at the beginning Of the clause, the word order is regular (subject + verb), and there is no “o-construction (see 611). Both [1a], [1b] are more common than [1]: plan only after a long argument. No one appears ~ The committee agreed to our ~ It was only after a long argument that the committee agreed to our plan. {1b} nd in non-finite clauses attached to a noun phrase instead of ion when the negated noun phrase is Not in phrases a! 586 Sometimes the negative word not is the verb phrase. There is no inversi subject: This artist likes big cities. Not all her paintings, however, are of citiesBut inversion and the dh front-placed noun py) heen phrase onstruction are required whe To make Non-finite ey és . auses negative not before the "kallve (see 49.3), we place the negative word verb phrase, ‘ae, Including to before the Infinitive: We had no op) MIONS aby out Katka, not having read hie The motorist was on prob Probation and under court ord. d court order not to drive The important thing n ‘9 NOW is not to mourn the past but to look ahead ransterred negation: | don't believe we've met et. je expect to fi a7 oe ‘0 find the negative item in the o | believe we haven't met. clause it negates. But instead we may Say ‘ | don't believe we've met. (2 se to the main clause. This in [2] mot has been transferred from the subclau tion, occurs after verbs like ction, which is called transferred nega strut on and think: pelieve, SUPPOSE, | don't suppose anybody will notice the improvement | suppose nobody will notice the improvement, Charlotte doesn’t think it’s very likely to happen again, _ Charlotte thinks it's not very likely to happen again Nominal clouses (sce CGEL 15.3-16) Nominal clauses function like noun phrases (see 595), This means that nominal clauses may be subject, object, complement, or prepositional complement. f¢ Nominal clause as subject: Whether | pass the test or not does not matter very much. ~ It doesn't matter very much whether | pass the test or not. fit-construction, see 542] ‘@ Nominal clause as object: | don’t know whether we really need a new car. 325_— jement: is compl al clause # @ Nomin ut is wheth vat or werd wor? about i er £0 Stay here 4, elsewhere inal clause a prepositional complement; @ Nom sis aise te question 38 1 whether We should abn : ‘ 'don can also occasionally take an APPOSItive fy the Play in apposition (see 470); NCtion Simiy lay eversbooy : Peg serztnon yur ealege 2488, 1. Where YoU Te dr main types of nominal clause, which Will b "© tern, e di Jauses oun phrase rediction, that Norway would win the matey, Nominal ¢ to that of 2% ur latest P are five Thevollowing sections: ir fe that.clauses (see $89) . «interrogate subclauses (See 590) minal relative clauses (see 592) @ no tive clauses (see 593) @ nominal to-infini fe nominal -ing clauses (see 594) shatelauses I'm sure that she'll manage somehow, 5589 That-clauses can 0c adjective complement. fe Tharclause as subject: That we'e stil alive is sheer luck, © That-clause as direct object: No one can deny that film. influence the pattern of public behaviour. S and Ty cur as subject, direct object, subject com : Plemen I or ‘© That-clause as subject complement: The assumption is that th "9s will improve. ¢ That use, that is often omitted when the that. , cla , complement or postponed subject (see 542): use Is object, I knew I was wrong, [object] {im sure we'll manage somehow. [complement] W's pity you have to leave s0 soon. [postponed subject) that this Wh-interrogative subclauses: Nobody seems to know what to do. 590 Interogative subclauses are introduced by witinterrogative words, including how (se S36). They can function as subject, direct object, subject comple ment or adjective complement. — 326NAL CLAUSES © Wirinterronn Nomi rc depense 88tve 4, wend on its suthgr MU &8 subjects How the book wil sell tareely © Wirtnterropauon menage to aly i, “UDClaUse © Wi-inter FOREIVE sub Sescribed the aceiyit Use as ea " font © WrinteroRative sept Clause ain Se as ¢¢ certain whose house we Were ie °mplement of an adjective: | wasn't Wh-clauses can have I th, clauses can be Prepositional eaun: ©n Which shelf jy, ~ Thomas couldn't remember Which shelf h e None of us were consultey Thomas couldn't remembe, the motor’) Yesno interrogative subclauses: She wondereq whether Stan would call, 5 Yesno interrogative subclauses are formed with if or whether. Olivia wondered iffwhether Stan would call Do you know if/whether the shops are open today? The alternative question (see 242) has iffwhether. .. or Doyou know iffwhether the shops are open or not? Only whether can be directly followed by or not: Whether or not Wally lost his job was no concern of mine. Nominal relative clauses: We need is something to get warm. M Nominal relative clauses are also introduced by different wh-words. They "tthe same functions as noun phrases: », 327as subject hing to get warn. (the thy a {iO that (the per Meg "BON vibe » ause as direct object deals with complaints. (the poy erson ed in this cupboard. (the things yp, that ty) ) ever 1 you net d buy whatever Is the ject complement; Jause aS object complement: pal relative you like. @ Nomi you can call me whatlever) names spree case complement of a preposition: fox whichlever candidate you like the best oe clauses are introduced by a wh-determiner or wh, “Pronoun this proverb: hs last, laughs longest. also be put in the form: Nominal relativ (see 523), 38 #9 Whoever !2u9 ‘This sentence can ~ Those who laugh last, laugh longest. replaced by the demonstrative pronoun those and th 4 Whoever is here reative pronoun who. WHO alone hardly occurs in this nominal re lative function. is we see above, a nominal relative clause can be introduced by a whe sword ending in ver, €-8 Whatever. These words have general or inclusi meaning. Thus the pronoun whatever means roughly ‘anything oe Other expressions containing relative clauses can be used instead, su: a ors wo, the person who instead of WHOEVET yh a Whoever told you that was lying. ~ Anyone who told you that was lying ~The person who told you that was lying. Nominal to-infinitive clauses: | was glad to be able to help. 593 Nominal to-infinitive cl 7 hse lauses have a number of different functions in the Nominal to-infinitive clause as subject: To say there is i there is no afterlife would mean a rejection of religion. 38_—_—_ © Nomina, nF iy NOMINAL CLAUSES We want eng nite tie as dives object The minister feat 1aMS6 a8 subject complement was very glad to help in hs CEPeMeNE Of aM adlective his way The subject of a to, subject here has the inal -ing clause: {don't like People telling me how t . Nominee Deticiple clauses faye a a sai ; nominal to-infinitive clauses. In Addition, they can eS Of functions as 4 preposition: e¥ can act as complement of @ Nominal -ing participle clause as subject: Telling stories was one thing my friend was well-known for @ Nominal -ing participle clause as direct object: | don’t mind people telling me how to do things better. # Nominal -ing participle clause as subject complement: What William likes best is playing practical jokes ¢ Nominal -ing participle clause as prepositional complement: Jessica sparked off the opposition by telling a television audience it was gossip. Anna is quite capable of telling her employers where they are wrong, When the -ing clause has a subject, there is sometimes a choice between {wo constructions. The genitive case of nouns and the possessive form of Pronouns are typical of style: Winston was surprised at his family’s reacting so sharply. Winston was surprised at their reacting so sharply. !n style, the uninflected form of nouns and the objective case 4 petsonal pronouns are more common: Winston was Surprised at his family reacting so sharply. Mston was surprised at them reacting so sharply. 329DUN PHRASES Noun phrases tooe CEL Chapter 17) Jed a noun phrase because the word why cl mT ‘A noun phrase is cal 595 ie. main part) is typically a noun. In the following two let 1s eg Jhrases (printed in italics}: tenceg tea te are several noun pl liner] rescued {On Tuesday] la German passenger ed [the trawler), [It] found {them] drifting [on a life raft] ater ofa abandoned [a sinking ship ey] hag vere are the noun phrases with a description of their grammatica ; al fu 1, Tuesday is a prepositional complement (see 654) in the phrase On Tuesday, which functions as a time-when adyery>tiona, 4 German passenger liner is the subject of the frst senten, bial ce. the crew of a trawler is the object. This noun phi ras i noun phrase, @ trawler, which is prepositional comp contains @Nothe, positional phrase of a trawler. Ment in the Pre Itis a personal pronoun referring to a German : tioning as the subject of the second sentence. NCtions, Passenger liner ana fy nc. . them isa plural personal pronoun referting to th reason why the plural them can refer to the singular, group noun (see 510) ar 4 life rafts the prepositional complement is is in the des, na life raf, which functions as a place adverbial "2 Phrase they is a plural personal pronoun referri ; sa s ng to th functioning as subject of the subclause beginning wnt frawler ang 8. a sinking ship functions as the object of had abandoned ‘te: ned, OF @ trawler. The ew is that this ¢ 596 A head noun can be accom J panied by determiners one or mote moe: passenger modifies liner and é mis ete) ang fara line: This type of modification is called premodifcan 5 modifiers stand before the head noun, Whe ‘There cation because . n tl after the i : tie head, it is called Postmodification, An example or matifeation Of this is in the — 330NUMBER Noun phrase [ 1 1 1 (Determiner) (Premodificaty dification The brackets indicate that the determiners and modifiers can be left out But determiners are more essential to noun phrase structure than modi fiers. The only situation in which a noun phrase has no expressed deter miner is where it has a ‘zero article’ (see 473), Here are some examples of noun phrases: Premodiication HEAD Postmadihication | 00Ks good 00x o0Ks to read good ‘BOOKS, Iwant to read | sinking swe German PASSENGER LINER | crew ofa trawler | The different parts of noun phrase structure are treated separately in this part of the grammar: determiners in $22, premodifiers in 650 and post- modifiers in 641. Apart from nouns, pronouns (see 661) and adjectives (see 448) may act as head of a noun phrase. fimber (see CGEL 5.73-103) Singular and plural number: this problem ~ those problems G7 In English, there is singular number (denoting ‘one’) and plural number (denoting ‘more than one’). Number is a feature of nouns (book/books), demonstrative pronouns (this/these, see $21), and personal pronouns (she/ they, see 619). It is also shown through concord with singular or plural forms of the verb (see 575). ‘The regular plural of nouns is formed by adding -s or -¢s to the singular (see 635). © Count nouns can be singular or plural (see 58), as in: ‘one daughter ~ two daughters a fast train ~ fast trains this problem ~ these problems 331