The word ever in English cannot normally occur in positive sentences: cf. the ungrammaticality of: (1)...

 

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The word ever in English cannot normally occur in positive sentences: cf. the ungrammaticality of: (1) *I will ever forgive you for that But it can occur in negative sentences: cf. (2) (a) Nobody will ever forgive you for that (b) I won't ever forgive you for that However, there are restrictions on the use of ever in negative sentences: for example, it can't occur in the following negative sentences: (3) (a) (b) *I will ever forgive nobody for that "Someone who didn't like you would ever forgive you for that Now, we might assume that the restrictions on the use of ever in negative sentences can be characterised in structural terms along the following lines: (4) Ever is an Adverbial expression (ADVP) which occurs as an immediate constituent of S. In negative sentences, ever must be preceded and c-commanded by a negative constituent (e.g. by a negative Modal, or by a Noun Phrase containing the negative Determiner no as one of its imme- diate constituents) I The word ever in English cannot normally occur in positive sentences: cf. the ungrammaticality of: (1) *I will ever forgive you for that But it can occur in negative sentences: cf. (2) (a) Nobody will ever forgive you for that (b) I won't ever forgive you for that However, there are restrictions on the use of ever in negative sentences: for example, it can't occur in the following negative sentences: (3) (a) (b) *I will ever forgive nobody for that "Someone who didn't like you would ever forgive you for that Now, we might assume that the restrictions on the use of ever in negative sentences can be characterised in structural terms along the following lines: (4) Ever is an Adverbial expression (ADVP) which occurs as an immediate constituent of S. In negative sentences, ever must be preceded and c-commanded by a negative constituent (e.g. by a negative Modal, or by a Noun Phrase containing the negative Determiner no as one of its imme- diate constituents) I