Friday, September 14, 2018

word usage - There are no ~ / There are not ~


All I know about "NO" is like this.


There are no movies playing on Christmas day.


=>There are not any movies playing on Christmas day.



=>We won't be showing any movies on Christmas day.


And here's what I'd like to ask.


As I don't want to wast my time doing nothing at home, I usually make my way to a place where I can do something productive.





  1. So, there are not many things that I do at home.




  2. So, there are no many things that I do at home.






Here, I think #1 is right because #2 means "there are not any many things that I do at home" and this sounds awkward and not grammatically right. Am I right to think this way?



Answer



No is a quantifier, like one, some, many, much, few, three. We don't combine quantifiers except in mathematical expressions (one hundred, three dozen), so no many is illegitimate.


Not is a negator. It can be combined with quantifiers (not much, not one) and other word classes (not difficult, not quickly, not a question). Generally, however, we prefer to 'raise' the negator in a predicate and attach it to the verb, just as we prefer to 'raise' it out of a subordinate clause into a main clause. The unraised versions tend to be employed only to emphasize where exactly the negation lies.



We will be showing not any movies on Christmas day.
okWe will not be showing any movies on Christmas day.



? I think that we won't be showing any movies on Christmas day.
okI don't think that we will be showing any movies on Christmas day.





You will see expressions like No three of them could lift the rock. Here no doesn't combine with three, it quantifies the entire following NP; that is, this sentence is equivalent to "No set of three of them could lift the rock".


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