The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002
13.10. Denial and affirmation 3
Unit thirteen. Information, reality and belief
Sections 264-269; 611-612
To emphasize the positive meaning of a sentence or to deny what someone has suggested or supposed, the intonation nucleus is put on the operator. When the negative is not contracted, the nucleus falls on not.
Shortened forms can be used to affirm a question or statement or to deny a statement.
The construction not/n t ... but is used to deny one idea and to affirm another, contrasting, idea.
Task one **
Respond to the following sentences by denying them. Use complete sentences, indicating the
intonation-nucleus.
Example: The postal workers have decided to go on strike, I hear.
→They haven’t decided to go on strike (they still have to vote on it).
1. There won’t be an inquiry into the railway disaster then?
2. So the new stadium isn’t going to be built after all?
3. Where did you buy that garden swing?
4. What a shame your visitors arrived so late!
5. You can’t lend a hand with these heavy cases, I suppose.
6. Surely this organization has secret funds somewhere?
7. Why do you keep refusing to learn a foreign language?
8. Teachers shouldn’t get upset when children skip classes, I would think.
9. This great innovator deserves special praise, surely?
10. I wonder when Jane and Dick are coming over for their annual holiday.
11. Clearly, your sister doesn’t want to see me any more now.
12. Tell me, why hasn’t anyone called an ambulance?
Task two **
Complete the following dialogue by adding short affirmations (A) or short denials (D).
Lynn: Mark, are YOU interested in history?
Mark: (D) ..., I think it’s extremely boring.
Lynn: You are not being serious.
Mark: (D) ... People should be interested in the future, not in the past.
Lynn: I hope you understand that SOME people take an interest in the past.
Mark: (A) ..., it’s just that I’ve always disliked the subject.
Lynn: You probably had teachers who insisted on students remembering lots of dates.
Mark: (D) ... as a matter of fact. One of them even got the dates wrong himself.
Lynn: Well, he can’t have been fully qualified for the job.
Mark: (A) ... He told us one day that Napoleon had died in 1812.
Lynn: Oh, he should have said 1821, of course. (A) … And ... he claimed that the Battle of Waterloo had taken place in Mark: 1805.
Lynn: That was an even more stupid thing to say.
Mark: (A) ... So I became convinced that history was a subject for nerds.
Lynn: And you didn’t want to become a nerd yourself.
Mark: (A) ... That’s why I started reading science fiction novels instead. They are very interesting books indeed.
Lynn: (D) ... Nothing’s more boring than sci-fi. Anyway, librarians will take such unscientific books off the shelves in the years to come.
M: (D) ... Some of those books are works of literature. You’ve never read Wells, Huxley ... Orwell, I suppose.
Lynn: (D) ...
Mark: Well, there you are! We seem to agree at last.
Task three **
Complete each of the following sentences by adding another, contrasting idea.
1. Geoffrey isn’t particularly gifted, but …
2. I don’t earn a fortune, but …
3. This country may not be a model democracy, but …
4. The tropics don’t really appeal to me, but …
5. Melissa shouldn’t be suspended from school, but …
6. We couldn’t find the ticket office, but …
7. I didn’t sell my film script to the national broadcasting company, but …
8. This article deals not with the collapse of communism, but …
9. Our secretary DOESN’T speak foreign languages, but …
10. The suspect DIDN’T plant the bomb, but …