The word 'already' used in negative sentences
I have noticed the word "already" used in negative sentences:
- I haven't already cooked dinner as the stove is not working.
- I hope you haven't already had this book. I have just bought one for you.
[1] Is it grammatically right to use "already" in negative sentences?
[2] What is the difference if we change "already" to "yet" for the above sentences?
[3] I hope you can give me more examples to support your explanation.
Solution 1:
Already is an example of what the The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language calls a polarity-sensitive item. These are items that typically occur either in positive contexts or in negative contexts.
The CGEL (p710) states that already "characteristically occurs in positive clauses". But it later notes:
(Still and) already are certainly not wholly excluded from falling within the scope of a negative, but they do so only under restricted conditions ... .
The Collins Cobuild English Grammar (p262) specifies three of these conditions with examples:
Note that 'already' cannot normally be used in negative statements, but can be used in negative if-clauses, negative questions and relative clauses.
- Refer certain types of death to the coroner if this has not already been done.
- What does it show us that we haven't already felt?
- ... all peers who did not already belong to the Privy Council.
As to the sentences in the question, the first one I haven't already cooked dinner does not meet any of the CCEG's three conditions. Already should be replaced by yet: I haven't cooked dinner yet.
The second sentence is I hope you haven't already had this book. The tense of the verb 'had' seems somewhat odd (as @Sven in another answer also points out). So I'll analyse the more natural:
I hope you don't already have this book.
Although this doesn't fulfil any of the CCEG's conditions, it seems perfectly acceptable. I can imagine a context in which I have bought a book that I think might interest you and express my hope that you don't possess it already. We have never talked about the book before; there is no indication that you had planned to buy the book at some point.
The alternative is:
I hope you don't yet have this book.
This seems more likely in a context in which we have already had a conversation about the book and you expressed an interest in acquiring it.
At any rate, for me both sentences are 'grammatical':
- I hope you don't already have this book.
- I hope you don't yet have this book.