‘NO!’ is the most important word in the Matrix, according to Mark Passio. In his interpretation of the Trilogy which was revealed in a presentation ‘The Matrix Trilogy De-coded’, he basically exposes the underlying message of the 3 films. I have to admit that I watched the YouTube video of his presentation, recorded on September 15, 2012 by Tim Smith at Liberties Pub, Philadelphia, PA, with bated breath, as he unravelled the story behind the story… confirming some of the ideas already banging in my head, and shocking me with others, that I wouldn’t even be able to concieve of.
I first watched ‘The Matrix’ when I was leaving secondary school and about to jump into the adult world. I was absolutely blown away by the concept, although – to be completely honest – I think I didn’t quite get it at that time. Some ideas were simply too far-fetched to a teenage girl growing up in post-communist Poland. Don’t get me wrong, the general notion of living in an illusionary system didn’t elude me. This part was as clear to me as Neo’s light. It was so refreshing and ground-breaking to my developing brain; it seemed like a perfect comment on Poland’s situation, and presented to me in the most appealing way imaginable. The new perspective really opened my eyes to the possibility that things may not have been exactly as they seemed. I learnt to distance myself from stuff that didn’t matter – a truly useful lesson for a young adult entering ‘the real world’ of university life. Boy, the lessons I learnt there, though… perhaps it’s best not to open that door…
I encourage those of you who haven’t seen Mark Passio’s video, to watch it. And the rest of you, to perhaps watch ‘The Matrix’ again… if only to get a perspective on the world today. WARNING: Some profound sh*t to ponder!
Since I’m not ready to take the red pill and see for myself how deep the rabbit-hole goes, I’ll stick around for a while. And as I’m still here, let me focus on presenting to you how fascinating the negation in English is.
I’m sure you all know by now that simply adding ‘no’ or ‘not’ to a verb or in some random place in a sentence doesn’t (see what I did there?!) really constitute a valid – and by ‘valid’, I mean ‘grammatically correct’ – English negation.
Most verbs in English are a little bit like the Avengers: pretty meaningful on their own but when it comes to putting up some considerable resistance, they need support. In case of the Avengers, it’s the other mates from the S.H.I.E.L.D. In case of the Verbs, it’s the Auxilliary Verbs. See, even their name denotes support! How awesome is that?! OK, maybe not thatawesome, but still it says something.
Let’s break it down! I’d say there are 3 major patterns of forming negations.
1. The verb TO BE. In most languages this little bastard, though insignificant in size, likes to be his (or her) own man (or woman). Which means that it is enough to add NOT to a suitable form of TO BE and we’re good to go!
PRESENT
+ I’m inside. – I’m not inside.
+ The name is Neo. – The name isn’t Neo. / The name’s not Neo.
+ They’re on the 8th floor. – They aren’t on the 8th floor. / They’re not on the 8th floor.
PAST
+ That was a long time ago. – That wasn’t a long time ago.
+ Most of us were still young, just punks, when Morpheus jacked us. – Most of us weren’t still young, just punks…
That is – of course – also true for the verb TO BE used in THE PASSIVE.
+ We’re trapped. – We’re not trapped. / We aren’t trapped.
+ The others were lost. – The others weren’t lost.
+ It’s hidden inside the Matrix. – It’s not hidden inside the Matrix. / It isn’t hidden inside the Matrix.
2. Sentences in CONTINUOUS and PERFECTIVE ASPECTS. This means nothing else than that they have the word ‘continuous’ or ‘perfect’ in their names. If you’re not familiar with the names of English tenses, you can easily detect those guys by looking at their structure:
-for Continuous it’s TO BE (in any form: are, is, was, were) + VERB+ING
-for Perfective – HAVE (in any form: have, has, had) + VERB in III form (-ed for regular verbs and Past Participle for irregular). In this case, either TO BE or HAVE perform the function of the Auxiliary Verbs, and so they take upon themselves the word NOT.
CONTINUOUS
+ They’re coming for you, Neo. – They’re not coming for you, Neo. / They aren’t coming for you, Neo.
+ He’s taking you into the Matrix. – He’s not taking you into theMatrix. / He isn’t taking you into the Matrix.
+ …and the truth is that the world you were living in was a lie. – …the world you weren’t living in was a lie.
PERFECTIVE
+ The time has come to make a choice, Mr Anderson. – The time hasn’t come…
+ I’ve watched you, Neo. – I haven’t watched you, Neo.
+ I’ve been waiting for this moment. (a lot of things going on here, but the rule is the same – HAVE gets NOT) – I haven’t been waiting for this moment.
I would also add MODAL VERBS (should / ought to, can / could, may, might, will / would) to this group, as they work just as TO BE and HAVE in negations.
+ We should be back in an hour. – We shouldn’t be back in an hour.
+ I’ll say it again. – I won’t (will not) say it again.
+ You can see it out your window. – You can’t see it out your window.
+ Most hackers would die to meet you. – Most hackers wouldn’t die to meet you.
+ You could say that. – You couldn’t say that.
Mind you, HAVE TO is an exception. It bahaves like verbs from group 3: it needs its own special Auxiliary Verb.
+ You have to learn to let go of that anger. – You don’t have to learn to let go of that anger.
+ This has to be done for your protection and ours. – This doesn’t have to be done for your protection and ours.
3. And finally, the group that you saw a trailer for in the previous point – the group that needs an extra Auxiliary Verb, specific to its tense, person and number. Here we’ll find a whole bunch of dudes generally called MAIN VERBS – they all denote a state or an action, unlike the ones from 1 and 2, which mainly performed some grammatical function. In affirmative sentences, MAIN VERBS often take an ending or change their form altogether. Something you could painfully experience while striving to learn by heart the infamous ‘Irregular Verbs List’. And this is – ironically – true for all tenses that have the word ‘simple’ in their name.
What does it mean for us?
A. we need to know which tense gets which Auxiliary,
B. when we form the negation, the MAIN VERB loses the tense – it is reborn as an Infinitive.
Check out the examples…
PRESENT
+ You take the blue pill and the story ends. – You don’t take the blue pill and the story doesn’t end.
+ System check looks fine. – System check doesn’t look fine.
PAST
+ The pill you took is a part of a trace programme. – The pill you didn’t take is a part of a trace programme.
+ I sent two units. – I didn’t send two units.
+ Shit, Neo, you scared the bejeezus out of me. – …, you didn’t scare the bejeezus out of me!
As simple as that…
One more thing: there’s NO DOUBLE NEGATIVE in English.
Study the examples:
If you never know failure, how can you know success?
They’ve never done it before.
…so, whenever you use any kind of phrase that carries a negative meaning, don’t you dare using NOT! In this context beware of: nowhere, no one, never, hardly ever, hardly, nothing, nobody.
They were going nowhere.
No one / nobody knows the truth.
We hardly ever hack computers.
He could hardly see the light.
They had nothing to fear. OR They didn’t have anything to fear.
It’s been a long journey, my friends. It’s time to take a rest. But while you rest, be aware of negative sentences in the Matrix… and in the film, too.
Drop me a few examples in the comments!