6.01 Non-assertive forms after negative words

Rule: Non-assertive forms are used after negative words.

Examples of errors:

1. During the Christmas holidays I didn't get a single invitation to do some private things.
2. This is the moment when many old people can't see a sense in life any more and sometimes decide t0 kill themselves.
3. Many of the teachers in our public schools can't teach too.
4. Cutting of the hand of a thief is the same idea as capital punishment, so it's not useful, too..
5. We can't no longer put up with such political decisions.
6. In such a community it might be that someone isn t still alive and no one notices.
7. Now we haven't yet the farm. My father sold it in 1952.
8. The majority of Americans do not longer approve of their President.
9. The people who live on the farm communes can't produce anything they need, so they have to buy some products from the villagers.
10. But it is hardly impossible to find out if people are still suffering under this shock.
11. Hardly no one knows his neighbors.
12. One problem old people have is lack of activity. They have no jobs or something else they can do.
13. I don't think young criminals should be imprisoned with adults. But I am not against a punishment at all for young criminals.
14. Education, no matter how you consider it--in the family or in the human community at all--has become more liberal.
15. I thought if I write this to someone at all, I'll write it to you.
16. Besides this they drink much and act silly.
17. The woman herself should be able to make the decision to have an abortion, not any unknown doctor.
18. My older brother is attending school yet.
19. In the 40's and yet in the 50's sex was taboo.
20. They don't know how to explain it and so do Loder and Carroll.

The negative words referred to in Rule 6.1 include the verb negator not and the negative words discussed in 6 (no one, nothing, never, nowhere, etc.). There are other words that are less obviously negative, but which also affect the choice of assertive vs. non-assertive forms: hardly, nearly, almost, little, few, least, but, only, seldom, just, before, fail, prevent, reluctant, hard, difficult, comparisons with too, etc. In the following examples the non-assertive forms anybody and anything are determined by the negative words little, reluctant and too in the main clause:

There was little chance anybody would come.

John was reluctant to read anything about the war.

John was too lazy to read anything about the war.

The words which have non-assertive forms are listed in 6.

Examples (1)-(9) above contain clauses with negative verbs, and thus call for non-assertive forms. In most cases, there is an alternative construction using a positive verb and a negative word:

I got no invitations (cf. (1))

They see no sense in life (cf. (2))

We can no longer put up with this (cf. (5))

It might be that someone is no longer alive (cf. (6))

We no longer have the farm (cf. (7))

The majority no longer approves (cf. (8))

The author of (9) has probably confused anything as the non-assertive form of everything rather than something. Everything, however, does not have a non-assertive form, and can therefore be used in the clause, even though it follows a negative verb.

Examples (10)-(12) illustrate the use of non-assertive forms following the negative words hardly and no. Note that two negative words together (e.g. hardly no one) constitutes a so-called double negative, and is not acceptable in standard speech, although many native English speakers use such constructions, particularly the combination of a negative verb and negative word following:

I don't want no more (substandard)

She didn't see nothing (substandard)

Impossible (cf. (10)) is not a non-assertive form, but since semantically it is the opposite of possible, the combination with hardly, though grammatically acceptable--expresses the opposite of what the author intended: hardly possible, in the context of this sentence, expresses the intended meaning 'almost (or certainly) impossible'; hardly impossible would mean certainly possible'.

At all is an intensifying expression used after either negative or non-assertive words, e.g.:

I have none at all.

I don't have any at all.

It cannot modify assertive determiners, as in (13) and (15). I'm not against any punishment at all (cf. (13)) is possible, of course, but means 'There is no punishment that I am against', which is quite different from the intended meaning. In (15) there is no negative or non-assertive form for at all to modify, and a completely different form must be substituted. The problem here is that German überhaupt is used in both negative and positive contexts, e.g.:

Ich habe Überhaupt kein Geld.

I have no money at all.

but also

...in der Familie oder in der menschlichen Gesellschaft überhaupt... (cf. (14))

...wenn ich an überhaupt jemanden schreibe (colloquial--cf. (15))

Much (cf. (16)) and many can be considered nonassertive forms, though they do occur assertively, particularly in formal style:

He shows much promise.

Many generations have come and gone.

In informal speech a lot (of), lots, quite a few, etc. are the usual assertive forms, and much (with non-count nouns) and many (with count nouns) are the non-assertive forms:

He gave me a lot of money (assertive)

He didn't give me much money/many coins (non-assertive)

Did he give you much money?/many coins? (non-assertive)

In (17), despite the preceding negative word (not), some is used assertively because it is in parallel construction with the assertive subject the woman herself. The final noun phrase can be considered a reduction of

...(and) some unknown doctor should not make the decision

where the negation occurs after some.

Yet (cf. (18)-(19)) is occasionally used assertively as equivalent to still, but this is formal or rhetorical, or limited to certain expressions (have yet), e.g.:

He is yet a child (formal)

I have yet to meet the man.

The plan may yet succeed.

Neither is the negative counterpart of so in sentences like (20). One could also say:

They can explain it and so can Loder/Loder can too.

They can't explain it and neither can Loder/Loder can't either.