21st Century Grammar Handbook

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21st century grammar
21st century grammar, transformation, transformation, - - - .pdf;filename*= UTF-8''অনুবাদ চর্চা (প্রথম আলো পত্রিকা থেকে-২৯-০৩-২০২০)-1, 21st century grammar

M
ISPLACED
N
EGATIVES
Just as it is easy to allow modifiers to slide into positions in sentences in which it is less than clear what the modi ers refer to, so negatives (a kind of modi er) often popup in the wrong or less than helpful places. WRONG The class reads never the books I’d want The example is unclear about who reads or wants what and when.
BETTER: The class never reads the books I’d want them to read.”
D
OUBLE
N
EGATIVES
Only one negative word can occur in a phrase or clause: to nobody give it to nobody When two negatives appear in the same phrase or clause, there is an error.
WRONG: I did not give it to nobody I never gave it to nobody Nobody never gave it tome The variations (and the instances of their occurrence) are all but endless. Particularly in longer clauses or phrases, careless writers tend to forget that a negative appeared earlier and that another is out of place later. Just as common are the kinds of errors in the examples, evidently because writers forget that
“nobody,” never and nothing are negatives that can’t be doubled in a clause or phrase.
To avoid this all too common mistake, proofread and revise with care, looking especially for the longer negatives in combination with each other or shorter negatives. When you nd mistakes like those in the examples, change one of the words to positive form I did not give it to anybody I gave it to nobody I never gave it to anybody Nobody ever gave it tome Sometimes, as with the last clause in the example, a positive rephrasing is not possible for one of the negatives:
“nobody” can’t become anybody or anything else and make sense with the rest of the clause. Larger rewrites are then necessary Nobody ever gave me anything or something of the sort, depending on what you mean. See revision. Never use the negative contraction “ain’t” in standard English statements.
Remember that some words can be made to have a negative sense without becoming negatives and thus are not subject to the rules of double negation. This

happens when negative prefixes or suffixes are added to the beginnings or ends of words nonstarter The example is a word that can appear with true negatives in phrases, clauses, or sentences because its negative sense is merely a connotation or suggestion of the particle added to it. It is not, in other words, strictly speaking a negative Nonstarters never get going The example is correct. WRONG:
“Nonstarters never do nothing RIGHT Nonstarters never do anything.”

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