Is it OK to put 'really' before 'not'?
NOT A TEACHER
Hello, Ademoglu:
I just wanted to share some information that
really interested me.
1. Really, he had not expected that.
2. He had not expected that, really.
3. He had
really not expected that.
My source A tells me that the position of "really" in those three sentences indicates that "really" is being used as a sentential adverb (sentence adverb).
According to my source B, those sentences would mean something like this:
"Yes, I'm telling you the truth in spite of what you might think: he had not expected that."
*****
If you accept that analysis from sources A and B, then
maybe "You should
really not lie on your CV" means something like: "I'm telling you the truth: you should not lie on your CV."
*****
As GoesStation reminded us, however, we usually would say: "You
really should not lie on your CV."
In such a sentence, "really" is NOT a sentential adverb. It appears to be an
emphasizer of the predicate, in my opinion.
Source A: R.M.W. Dixon,
A Semantic Approach to English Grammar (2005), courtesy of Google "books"; source B: Romer and Schulze,
Patterns, Meaningful Units and Specialized Discourses (2010), courtesy of Google "books."