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-Not today, I haven’t. (I haven’t seen Leila/her)
-Is Tony working at the University?
- Not now, he isn’t. He used to.
The usage of negative adverbs at the beginning of the clause makes the utterance emphatic:
Hardly had we left the hotel when it started to pour with rain.
Little did we know that we would never meet again.
Only in spring do we see these lovely little flowers.
The inverted usage of “not” also makes the utterance emphatic:
Not for a moment did I think I would be offered the job, so I was amazed when I got it.
Not till I got home did I realize my wallet was missing.
For making the meaning of negation emphatic we can use “at all” after the word or phrase we are emphasizing:
There’s nothing at all left in the fridge.
I’d be rather not be here at all.
Not at all can be used before an adjective:
She was not at all happy with the result.
We often add emphasis to negation to make what we say more polite, so when someone makes a request using the phrase Do you mind if…, Would you mind if.., instead of replying with “No”(I don’t mind) we often say not at all or not in the least when we reply:
-Do you mind if I sit here?
- Not at all.
-Would you mind if I check my emails on your computer?
- Not in the least.
When we use verbs like think, believe, suppose (mental process verbs) to express uncertainty about something , we usually use “not” with the mental process verb rather than with the verb expressing the action :
-I don’t think I’m going to pass my exams (instead of saying: I think I am not going to pass my exams). But with the verbs hope and wish we don’t use “not” in this case: I hope I’m not going to fail; I wish I hadn’t sent email to Joan.
Analysed above examples show that negative emphasis involves rejection based on a small amount of negative information.
There are negations of different strength, ranging from a simple, barely noticeable disagreement with the views of another person, to categorical, irreversible negation. Therefore, in natural language there is quite a variety of means of negation expression, and therefore there are a number of theories based on different principles of analysis and classification criteria for the category of negation.