If someone says "David is not really a leader", it means something like: the speaker believes that David isn't the kind of person you would think of as a without-doubt a real leader; but the speaker isn't necessarily saying that David is definitely a very poor leader.
If someone says "David is really not a leader", it means that the speaker thinks that David is definitely a very poor leader.
What analysis (grammatical, dictionary, etc?) can help me understand how this difference in meaning is created?
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