"not"

[Antonella Conte]

Hi there fellow researchers,

I am presently doing some morphological and syntactical (if this is a
word?) utterance analysis and was wondering how to classify the word "not".
 If I were to follow traditional grammar and parts of speech, "not" would
be classified as an adverb (Ex.: I do not eat fish; I don't speak Greek)...
at least as it is stated in a bilingual Eng/Fr dictionary.  However, does
the nature change when one analyzes syntax.  I know syntax means "order" in
an utterance, but to establish order, one needs to code and assign codes to
all the words in an utterance (especially if there are many utterances).
My Collins Cobuild "English Grammar" (1196:207) calls words like "not"
"negative words".

Another question, is the category "negative" one that is used in
traditional grammar (ie noun, verb, adjective, etc.)?

Thanks very much,
Antonella Conte
Laval University
Quebec Canada