Word Order in English: Positive vs Negative Sentences

Word Order in Standard English

• Positive sentences are more direct and easier to understand than negative sentences due to the additional processing required for negation.

Negation in Sentences

• Negation is accomplished by inserting "not" or "n't" between the operator and the predication in a sentence.
• The operator in a sentence is the first auxiliary in the verb phrase, or "BE" or "HAVE" as the verb in a simple verb phrase.

Negative Words and Expressions

• Some words and expressions have negative meanings, such as "unless", "fail to", "notwithstanding", "except", "other than", "unlawful", "disallowed", "terminate", "void", and "insufficient".
• These words should be watched out for when they appear after "not" in a sentence.

Converting Negative to Positive Sentences

• To convert a negative sentence to a positive one, find a positive word to express the meaning.
• Examples of converting negative to positive sentences:
  • "I'm not thirsty" → "I am thirsty"
  • "He hasn't a car" → "He has a car"
  • "The attempt has not succeeded" → "The attempt has succeeded"

Auxiliary Verb Usage

• When there is no auxiliary operator in a positive sentence, the auxiliary "do" is used, followed by the bare infinitive.
• Examples of using "do" as an auxiliary verb:
  • "She does not see me every week" → "She sees me every week" (present tense, third person)
  • "She did not see me last week" → "She saw me last week" (past tense)

Lexical Be and Lexical Have

• Sentences with lexical "be" behave exactly as when "be" is an auxiliary verb.
• Lexical "have" usually has "has" as the operator, and informally "got" is often added.
• Examples:
  • "She isn't a teacher" → "She is a teacher"
  • "I do not have enough money" → "I have enough money"
  • "I haven't got enough money" → ?

Non-Assertive Words

• Some words, such as "some", "once", "already", "somebody", "something", "sometimes", "somewhere", and "someone", are mainly used in affirmative sentences.
• These words are often called assertive words.
• In questions and negatives, non-assertive words like "any", "anything", "anybody", "ever", and "yet" are used instead.
• Examples:
  • "We've had some lunch" → "We haven't had any lunch" → "We've had no lunch"
  • "I somehow surprised" → "I wasn't in any way surprised" → "I was in no way surprised"