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<blockquote type="cite" cite>Every year I'm amazed at how many of my
freshmen and sophomores do not seem<br>
to ever have heard that 'cannot' is written as one
word. I can only<br>
conclude that many high school teachers aren't aware of it either...
so maybe<br>
we're in the midst of a change-- I don't think any dictionaries list
it as</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>two words? (Too lazy to look right
now)<br>
</blockquote>
<div>I'm not sure what you mean. When "can not" is
two words, it wouldn't be listed in the dictionary any more than
"could not" is. They do all list "cannot",
often with (as I mentioned) the misleading gloss 'can not'. Not
always, though--the AHD4 slyly glosses it as 'the negative form of
"can".' "shouldn't", on the other hand, is
glossed as 'the contraction of<i> should not',</i> which is right as
far as it goes. (In particular,<i> shouldn't</i> is not
normally the negative form of<i> should,</i> since both "You
should do it" and "You shouldn't do it" can be
simultaneously false, if it doesn't matter whether you do it or
not.) As far as spelling "cannot" as one word with no
spaces, that is I believe a somewhat higher-register thing to do, and
as I was arguing earlier today it's never really obligatory, so if
your students aren't doing it, it's hard to know what to
conclude.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>larry</div>
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