In a passage I've just proofread, the writer had put
- She denies any change in mood nor any sweating.
The "nor" just sounded wrong to me; I usually do my grammar by instinct, but when I'm unsure I check it. Most of the references I can find say that "nor" should come after a negative verb phrase. I suppose the writer's argument is that "deny" is sufficiently negative to replace "neither" in this case, but it grates my ear. Guidance, please?
In this case, trust your instincts. Both "change in mood" and "sweating" are targets of she denies which is what she does in this clause. "She doesn't deny" or "She denies neither" would invert the verb. That doesn't happen here.
Extensively, any time you see nor without a parallel neither or a literal or conjunctive not, it will be out of place. There are very few exceptions to this rule.
Google claims 1,240,000 hits for "denied all the charges", but only 151,000 hits for "denied any of the charges". And some of the latter are false hits where the reason for using "any" is an earlier negative, e.g. "neither admitted nor denied any of the charges" or "he had never denied any of the charges".
This suggests that, to express multiple denials, you may treat the verb "deny" as a positive verb, not as a negative one.
Trust hawkeyegold and please also note couple of lesser niggles.
Is ‘proofread’ in any way relevant here? Would it make any difference if you’d simply said ‘read’, please?
Do you think ‘it grates my ear’ is correct? I’ve never heard it put that way but always ‘it grates on my hearing’.
