Wednesday, September 29, 2021

The Grammar Book p.195, 197: Can anyone explain these parts to me?

(Commonplace Book)


From page 195, which talks about the conditions in which different ways of forming negative sentences can sometimes have negative meanings.
***Quote***
Semantic nonequivalence can also occur in the interaction of not-versus no-negation with quantifiers:
All the guests didn't drink wine. ≠ All the guests drank no wine.

 ***ENDQUOTE--italics, boldface, and indentation all in the original***

I have puzzled over this for so long, and I still can't get it.  Why are these sentences not semantically equal?  It has to have something to do with the quantifier, right?

And then from page 197, there's another section I don't understand.
It's talking about the difference between not versus no.  It says often they are the same, but sometimes there is a difference in meaning
****QUOTE****
When no-negation occurs, it is often in collocations such as see no reason; no more, no less; no longer; in implicit denials in existential constructions (There is no milk in the house) as compared with contrastive not-negation in explicit denials (There isn't any milk in the house);...
***ENDQUOTE****

Again, I don't get it.  Why is one of these an "implicit denial" and the other an "explicit denial"?  What is the difference in meaning?

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