NEGATION ON THE LEXICAL LEVEL
We discussed earlier how phrases and sentences are negated in English. Now, we turn to how words are negated in English with the help of affixes (prefixes and suffixes that attach to words to change the meaning).
Once you reach a more advanced level in English, you begin to notice that certain prefixes and suffixes can be added to a word to change its meaning.
Careful-careless | Important-unimportant |
Moral-immoral | Possible-impossible |
Unfortunately, there is no rule for which affix attaches to which word: it depends on the etymology of the word and is therefore unpredictable. Pay attention when you come across negated words and try to memorize the suffix.
What can be learned are words that have the same effect as ‘no’ or ‘not’.
- never, little, few, neither…nor, and yet.
- I have never gone to the mall. (I have not gone to the mall.)
- I have little cash in my wallet. (I have (almost) no cash in my wallet.
- Neither my mother nor my aunt has ever been to California! (My mother and aunt have not been to California.
- I have yet to visit my baby niece! (I have not visited my baby niece.)
- I have some change.
- I don’t have any change.