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Negative polarity can be indicated by negating words or particles such as the English not, or the Japanese affix-nai, or by other means, which reverses the meaning of the predicate. The process of converting affirmative to negative is called negation – the grammatical rules for negation vary from language to language, and a given language may ...
For example, anywhere is an NPI corresponding to the negative nowhere, as used in the following sentences: I was going nowhere. (the negative nowhere is used when not preceded by another negative) I was not going anywhere. (the NPI anywhere is used in the environment of the preceding negative not)
We can't not go to sleep! This is something you can't not watch. The key to understanding the former examples and knowing whether a double negative is intensive or negative is finding a verb between the two negatives. If a verb is present between the two, the latter negative becomes an intensifier which does not negate the former.
NEG se CL puede can. 1SG pisar walk el the césped grass No se puede pisar el césped NEG CL can.1SG walk the grass "You cannot walk on the grass." Zagona also notes that, generally, oblique phrases do not allow for a double clitic, yet some verbs of motion are formed with double clitics: María María se CL fue went.away- 3SG María se fue María CL went.away-3SG "Maria went away ...
Korean verbs can be negated by the negative verbs 않다 anta and 못하다 mothada or by the negative adverbs 안 an and 못 mot. The copula 이다 ida has a corresponding negative copula 아니다 anida. (anida is an independent word like anta and mothada, unlike ida which cannot stand on its own and must be attached to a noun.)
For example, él, ella, or usted can be replaced by a noun phrase, or the verb can appear with impersonal se and no subject (e.g. Aquí se vive bien, 'One lives well here'). The first-person plural expressions nosotros , nosotras , tú y yo , or él y yo can be replaced by a noun phrase that includes the speaker (e.g. Los estudiantes tenemos ...
Spanish has two grammatical numbers: singular and plural. [27] The singular form is the lemma, and the plural is the marked form. [28] Whether a noun is singular or plural generally depends on the referent of the noun, with singular nouns typically referring to one being and plural nouns to multiple.