Korean Job Discussion Forums

[marckot]

I have a question about the following sentence. Which sentence is correct and why?

He still did not understand the air traffic regulations.

He did not still understand the air traffic regulations.

I know the first one is correct but the question is why?

[nobbyken]

'he did not still', is a wrong combination of words in this case.
Maybe with the correct punctuation, it could be made to make sense of a fashion. Never heard that combination used correctly before.

[Hanson]

This probably won't help, but if you change "still" for "yet" in the 2nd sentence, it would work fine.

[yawarakaijin]

Looks to me like an adverb placement issue. Sometimes they are more commonly used before the verb, sometimes after, sometimes both are acceptable. In most cases the adverb still sounds better placed before the main verb. I guess it could sometimes be used after the main verb but to me the meaning is changed sligtly.

I'm still going to the party, no matter what you say.
I'm going to the party still, no matter what you say.

Obviously the first one is the correct choice

The war in Lalaland is terrible but it is continuing still.
The war in Lalaland is terrible but it is still continuing.

Both would be ok in my books.


Oh well, I'm sure someone with all the correct meta language will come along to explain it in ESL terms.

[nicholas_chiasson]

-simple reason
he did not still understand the regulations
ambig(help me)uity

AS in
At one time, in his youth, he understood the regulations. Now an old man, he did not STILL understand the regulations.
Compare
I used to live in Cambodia. I don't still live there(OR live there still).

Thus we have two meanings
He still did not understand, even after 5 explanations
vs
He did not still understand Polish, as his languages went Kaput over the years.

Agree?

[bacasper]

[jkelly80]

You can't put an adjunct between the specifier and the head in a verb phrase. "did not understand" is the VP, and "not" is the specifier, under the same v-bar as understand.

[marckot]

Thanks for all the help. Things are clear to me now.

[WoBW]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it simply that 'not' must be followed immediately by a verb? Unless it is the last word in a sentence that is: "I love jiggy jiggy in the shower, but my girlfriend does not."

[Hanson]

[fancypants]

It seems to me that "still" must come right before the verb, unless it's the "to be" verb.

I still talk to my neighbours.

I am still talking to you.

"Yet" mostly comes at the end of sentences:

I haven't talked to you yet.

If these adverbs "yet" and "still" occur at the beginning of the sentence, they must be offset by a comma to show their displacement and have a different meaning:

Yet, I haven't talked to you.

Still, I haven't talked to you.

Adverbs like to be close to what they modify.

As for why, who knows? English is nutty.

[Hanson]

[fancypants]

[yawarakaijin]

[nicholas_chiasson]

Let's gloss this sentence semanticly


He still did not understand the directions
He did not still understand the directions

So we have an subject and a predicate(all languages do)
The subject is obviously
He
the predicate is obviously
still did not understand the directions
did not still understand the directions
now we can get rid of
the directions as it is clearly a direct object in English
this leaves us with the phrase
still did not understand
and
did not understand still
clearly-there is a difference in semantics or meaning between the two. Why? well lets
oh who cares...