TESOL Journal

The first issue of TESOL's new peer-reviewed, free, online journal, TESOL Journal, is now available.

CBC Literary Awards

Today the CBC announced the winners of the 2009 CBC literary awards. My brother, Michael Eden Reynolds, was shortlisted for his poem Outage, but was not one of the winners. Congratulations to those who did win!

Negating must and have to

In most ESL grammars, you find claims that must and have to result in different meanings when negated even though their affirmative meanings are essentially the same. That is, negate must and you end up with a prohibition. Negate have to, on the other hand, and you get a lack of obligation.

It just occurred to me that this has less to do with must and have to and more to do with the scope of negation. I'm not claiming this as a new discovery. I've probably read or heard it before and simply forgotten, but it just struck me now and I don't think I'll forget again.