Negation

Jon D. Boyd johanan at juno.com
Wed Feb 14 01:34:00 EST 2001


Keith Thompson wondered "how exactly does negation work"?

I would be hard pressed to say "exactly" how it works, but Porter and BDF
have helped me. 
Stanley Porter (_Idioms of the Greek NT_) explains that a negative can
negate either a whole clause (e.g. a verb) or a word.  He says, "Clause
negation often but not alway [sic] appears at the beginning of a clause
or proximate to the verb" (p. 282).  

BDF (Section 433) says, "The negative stands as a rule before that which
is to be negated."  Below that it says, "The separation of the negative
from the verb to which it belongs can be ambiguous"--and it lists Acts
7:48 and James 3:1 as two examples.  

Hope that helps,

Jonathan Boyd
Ankeny, IA    
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