May be not or May not be?

What is the difference between "may be not" and "may not be" ?

Example:
- She may be not a student.
- She may not be a student.
==> Do the two sentences have the same meaning?

[1] She may be not a student, ...
Meaning => True, she is not a student, she's a teacher, but she works just as hard as a student. She studies English at home on her own time.

[2] She may not be a student.
Meaning => There is a possibility that she is not a student.


Modal may, like modal must, is ambiguous between epistemic and deontic modality:

Does that help?

Casiopea said:

[1]
Negated
Ex: She may not be at school.
=> There's a possibility that she is not at school.

Click to expand...

That sentence can also be expressed like this:
Maybe she is not at school.

___________________________
NOTE:
:turn-l:Bear in mind I'm not a teacher!:turn-l:

Casiopea said:

[1] She may be not a student, ...
Meaning => True, she is not a student, she's a teacher, but she works just as hard as a student. She studies English at home on her own time.

[2] She may not be a student.
Meaning => There is a possibility that she is not a student.


Modal may, like modal must, is ambiguous between epistemic and deontic modality:

Deontic modality​

Ex: She may go to school.​

=> permission; e.g., she is allowed to go.​

Negated​

Ex: She may not go to school.​

=> permission to go to school is denied.​

Epistempic modality​

Ex: She may be at school.​

=> possibility;e.g., It is possible that she is at school.​

Negated​

Ex: She may not be at school.​

=> There's a possibility that she is not at school.​

Ex: She may be not at school, but ...​

=> True, she is not at school, she's at home, but she's at home studying right now as if she were in school.​

Does that help?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've got it! Thanks.

You're most welcome. :-D

Casiopea said:

Ex: She may not go to school.
=> permission to go to school is denied.
​

Click to expand...

What if want to say that she was granted a permission not to go to school? I.e. deny go instead of may.

mmasny said:

What if I want to say that she was granted [STRIKE]a[/STRIKE] permission to not go to school? Is this what you mean?
I.e. deny go instead of may. I don't know what you mean here..

Click to expand...

If so, you can say the following sentences.

1...She doesn't have to go to school. (This is the most common and simple way to say it.)

2...She (has permission)(is allowed) to (skip)(not go to) school. (also correct)

engee30 said:

That sentence can also be expressed like this:
Maybe she is not at school.

___________________________
NOTE:
:turn-l:Bear in mind I'm not a teacher!:turn-l:

Click to expand...

No, it can't. Casi's sentence expresses concession; yours a possibility.

vv0510_vn said:

What is the difference between "may be not" and "may not be" ?

Example:
- She may be not a student.
- She may not be a student.
==> Do the two sentences have the same meaning?

Click to expand...

The first is not acceptable except as part of a sentence continuing 'but a...', as in

She may be, not a teacher, but an educational adviser.

(commas are optional).

The second is the standard word order and would naturally be understood to have an epistemic sense (i.e. meaning 'it is possible that she is not...')

A deontic sense is highly unlikely here, but would be possible with a different verb, e.g.

She may not become a teacher.

could, depending on sense/context, mean 'she is not permitted to...'

@2006
'to not go' is right? Not 'not to go'? That's a bit confusing. A saw this form only once in a dictionary and never in speech. I thought denying an infinitive is always done by adding 'not' before 'to'. Even once, when I went to school yet, I asked my teacher about it (having seen that above mentioned dictionary entry) and he was confused too. So where and when should I put 'not' when I want to deny an infinitive?

I would use 'not to go' there; it's the normal way to make an infinitive negative. Some use 'to not' to show extra emphasis, so 'I decided to not go' would be a stronger rejection of the idea of going than 'I decided not to go', which doesn't seem to be the case here.

Also, some argue that you should never split an infinitive, though I don't think there's much to be said for this as an idea.