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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Jamal Spelling on January 14, 2008, at 16:04:36
It always sounds wrong to me to say "do not". I think it should be "not do" instead.
For example, somebody says:
"I do not fly.".Syntactically, my instinct is to interpret this as:
"I do <not fly>.".<not fly> means the complement of <fly>, as in, everything different from <fly>. So, <not fly> may include <walk>, <swim>, <teleport>, <read>, <sleep>, etc.
So I interpret the sentence
"I do <not fly>."
as
"I do {<walk>, <swim>, <teleport>, <read>, <sleep>,...}.".But of course, you don't actually do all of those things, and that's not what you mean when you say
"I do not fly.".This ambiguity can be eliminated by saying
"I not do fly."
instead.
Posted by Kath on January 14, 2008, at 17:36:00
In reply to Do not vs not do, posted by Jamal Spelling on January 14, 2008, at 16:04:36
Yeah!!! I get what you're saying!! The English language is pretty strange.
Someone I know never says don't, won't, wouldn't etc.
Years ago he was in a group that discouraged the use of contractions like that....I dunno why - maybe so people would think before they spoke.
Anyway, if I ask him a question, he'd say,
I do not know.
Are we late? I do not think so.
Is that yours? No, it is not mine.
Don't you feel cold? No I do not.
Never knew anyone else to do it.
Kath
Posted by Phillipa on January 15, 2008, at 13:11:54
In reply to Re: Do not vs not do » Jamal Spelling, posted by Kath on January 14, 2008, at 17:36:00
A lot of people I know do it including me and my husband and the neighbors I know. A US thing? Phillipa
Posted by Sigismund on January 15, 2008, at 16:47:57
In reply to Do not vs not do, posted by Jamal Spelling on January 14, 2008, at 16:04:36
I think non-Engliosh speakers have difficulties with the way `do` is used in questions.
Instead of `Cook you breakfast?`, they have to say `Do you cook breakfast`.
This is the end of the thread.
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