verb + not as negation?

[Torsten]

Hi,

I understand that there used to be a time when you could use "not" to negate a verb:

"Fear not" instead of "don't fear" or "it matters not" instead of "it doesn't matter".

My question when did this construction become old-fashioned? I sometimes come across it in books that were written at the beginning of the 20th century.

Thanks a lot.
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[Alan]

Hi Torsten,

It is now considered to be archaic /poetic. It appears for example in the English translation of the Bible made in 1611, known as the King James Bible. Here is a snatch from that edition:

[Yankee]

[Jamie (K)]

In the 1960s, President Kennedy exhorted Americans: "Ask not what your country can do for you! Ask what you can do for your country!"

In the late 1990s, a woman I knew here in the US worked for a company that was bought by a larger company called ICN. She and other employees said that ICN stood for, "I care not."

Negation of the bare verb burps up quite frequently in American English, which does, after all, retain some older grammatical forms that are no longer used in England.

You may also be surprised that in certain situations Americans form questions by fronting the main verb, as in court when the judge asks, "Mr. Jury Foreman, what say you?"

I don't know exactly when negating the main verb came to be considered archaic, but it was obviously a gradual process. In some texts as late as the 1700s or early 1800s, people were still negating that way sometimes.

I also think it changed earlier with some verbs than with others. Notice that in the 1930s, when it was normally impossible to negate most main verbs, you could still hear people in American movies saying, "I haven't enough money," or, "Haven't you anything better to do?" Similarly, they would form questions by fronting the main verb have, by saying things like, "Have you a nickel for the telephone?"

By the 1960s or 1970s, however, this negation and question formation with the main verb have had come to be extremely archaic sounding, and by the 1990s, we American teachers would laugh when we saw it in East European-produced ESL textbooks. Now the only main verb that can normally be negated and fronted in a question is be.

But you should never assume that anything has fallen completely out of use. On American TV one day, I saw a real court case where a man and woman, who'd divorced because of the husband's infidelity, were arguing over some property. The judge asked the ex-husband, "Do you have a girlfriend now?" and the man blurted out, "I ain't got NAY a woman!" Some of this American man's English was straight from the 15th century, and you can hear very old forms in the language of many non-standard dialect speakers.

[Torsten]

Hi Jamie,

Many thanks for your response which is very interesting indeed. I have a British grammar book published in the 70ies and there you can find the question "Have you any children?" and I used to think that this is simply an older version of "Do you have any children?"

Amy, as for Alan's comment regarding "un-American English", you must know that Alan has a great sense of humour and he sometimes just makes jokes which is good because it helps learn English. I also know that Alan is of the opinion that the Americans are very creative and inventive when it comes to developing the English language.

So, I think what Alan was referring to is the fact that in general the Americans tend to be more active in changing the language than the British are. Again, that's a very general statement. After all, a language reflects the mentality and culture of its speakers. In very general and simple terms, the Americans represent some type of 'new world' while the British are more likely to stick to traditions and conventions. This shows in their language too. From an ESL perspective, the differences between American and British English are very minor but sometimes even small differences indicate a certain way of thinking.

The Americans have made many things easier using a very practical approach and I guess that's what Alan was hinting at. For example, "learned" vs. "learnt" or "center" vs. "centre", etc. As you know, in addition to spelling there a few differences in grammar, vocabulary and style too.
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[Jamie (K)]

Torsten, it's not really possible to generalize that Americans change the English language while the British are more conservative. The language is constantly changing in both places, and many of the differences between American and British English exist because aspects of the language have changed in England while the Americans retained the older forms.

As for Alan's jokes, you have to understand that Americans often don't understand when the British are joking, and when we do recognize it, we often miss the humor.

[Alan]

You raise an interesting point, Jamie that I personally would be interested in hearing more about when you write:

[Lost_Soul]

[Jamie (K)]

It's an archaic fixed phrase, and you couldn't say it outside that situation.