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I read a sentence in the usage. He denied not to go there,and the like sentence. I think deny is one of those non assertives

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  • There was something wrong with your image link and my protection system alerted to it so I have edited it out.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Feb 11, 2018 at 17:24
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    Deny, prohibit, and refuse are all negative verbs. Deny means 'say not', prohibit means 'keep from doing', and refuse means 'not do. They all license Negative Polarity Items like ever and in weeks: He denies that he's been there in weeks; She prohibited them from ever going again; I refuse to ever speak there. Commented Feb 11, 2018 at 17:29
  • 'He denied not going there' sounds most unnatural. You'd use 'They accused him of lying when he said he'd already been to pay his respects at the grave, but he insisted he had.' Commented Feb 11, 2018 at 17:36
  • *He denied not going there means -- and is as ungrammatical as -- *He said he didn't not go there. Commented Feb 11, 2018 at 19:59

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In a comment, John Lawler wrote:

Deny, prohibit, and refuse are all negative verbs. Deny means 'say not', prohibit means 'keep from doing', and refuse means 'not do. They all license Negative Polarity Items like ever and in weeks: He denies that he's been there in weeks; She prohibited them from ever going again; I refuse to ever speak there.

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    And therefore, since they're already negative, they don't have negatives in their complement clauses. Commented Feb 11, 2018 at 20:00
  • This is true, but I'm not sure whether it answers the OP's question. These verbs don't license negative concord, but they do all allow negative clauses. (It's not clear to me what the OP has in mind.)
    – ruakh
    Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 2:21

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