SYNTAX NEGATION

seminar 1

1.Which of the following sentences exhibit forms of semantic/ syntactic negation?

His observation is non-scientific and it is also irrelevant./ Bill isnt interested in syntax and his friends are
not interested in syntax./ He disapproves of mothers going out to work./ He doesnt approve of mothers
going out to work./ Nikitas unpleasant face appeared on TV last Thursday night./ Nikitas unpleasant face
did not appear on TV last Thursday night./ Nikitas not very unpleasant face did not appear on TV last
Thursday night./ Nikitas not very unpleasant face appeared on TV last night./ Nikitas not very
unpleasant face didnt appear on TV last night.
2. Say whether the following are instances of local or sentence negation by using the tests for negativity
above: I dont know much about him. / I can hardly understand what they are saying. / You have never
met her. / I havent ever seen such a thing. / Should they not have told her the truth? / Not infrequently,
they go skiing in the mountains. / In no time he was able to solve the problem. / At no time was he able to
solve the problem. / Not always a witty interlocutor, Jim felt rather at a loss for words. / They caused us
no problems. / No problems were caused after all. / This boy is no good. / Few of them stayed behind. / A
few of them stayed behind.
3. Distinguish between the sentences which exhibit negative insertion or contraction, negative attraction
and negative incorporation:
They didnt send many students abroad. / I showed him nothing. / Not many women are famous opera
composers. / Not a word fell from her lips. / She said not a word when I spoke to her. / It didnt take him a
minute to tell her the secret. / Not a minute did it take him to tell her the secret. / No one ever listens to
her. / None of them liked house music. / Not one of them came to meet her./ They didnt come to meet
her. / I saw nobody. / I didnt see anybody./ They never went there./ They didnt ever tell her what
bothered them. / He should not be released.
4 Rephrase the following sentences making them emphatic: I shall never, never trust a man again. / One
can have peace in life only by avoiding them altogether. / A truer word has seldom been spoken! / This
nation scarcely ever in the past faced so great a danger. / There is rarely an opportunity for us to serve the
community in this way. / Nothing like that ever happened in our street before./ We seldom receive such
generous praise. / Ann gave him the use of her flat and lent him a car as well. / She had no idea he was a
man on the run from the police./ We never thought he was that sort of fellow. / We little suspected when
we started our holiday that it would be like this. / You rarely see such an outstanding bargain. / You
shouldnt wander away from the path under any circumstances. / I didnt leave the office at any time. /
You must on no account touch this machinery. / She could rely on nobody but him. / We not only ran into
the fog but it began to rain. / The keys couldnt be found anywhere.
5.Give the negative / positive counterpart of the following sentences; identify the polarity items:
We have already had some snow this winter. / They say he once had someone very close. / Come on, you
can still do something about it. / We will see them again somewhere sometime. / We were somehow
surprised by that sudden appearance. / Well, I hope hes somewhat wiser now. / I somewhat like his
proposal. / I think I can help him (to) some (extent). / Dont worry, it will stop hurting before tomorrow. /

Susan got a passing grade in English and her friend did, too. / Alice doesnt live here any longer/ more. / I
dont feel any better for having had a holiday. / Well, Im afraid her husband was never any good. / You
neednt send her anything. / She hardly ever comes here. /This experiment has revealed something of
importance already. / Bob is still living at that address. / I can understand both of these sentences./ I can
understand all of these ten English words. / Hundreds of students can find somewhere comfortable to live/
Some of the questions on this test he knew how to answer. / Peter knows some English and so does John./
Both John and Peter have pretty wives. / Daddy drinks a lot of coffee and he always used to. / I nearly
always have to clean it myself. / Almost every one of them did well on that exam. / You must pay that
fine. / You must be telling lies.