USAGE: French usage (was: USAGE: Circumfixes)

>En réponse à Christophe:
>
>And even there it gives an archaic feeling. "Ne" is also used alone
>in *affirmative* completive subclauses after a verb of fear:
>Je crains qu'il ne vienne: I fear he will come.
In uni, we learned this as the "pleonastic 'ne'". In a non-fear
context, I seem to remember a sentence like:
Je suis plus grand qu'il ne l'est.
was possible.

Then Stephen asked:

>  Can a Francophone give me an example of "ne" without "pas" (or
>"personne", "rien", "jamais" or any of the
others)?

Christophe offered, "Je ne sais."

The mnemonic we learned is S.T.O.P.

S - savoir  (Je ne sais.)
T - tromper (Si je ne me trompe.- If I'm not mistaken.)
O - oser (Tu n'oserais. - You wouldn't dare.)
P - pouvoir (Je ne puis.(?) Je ne peux.(?))

Three sound a tad dated, but I *like* "Si je ne me trompe." and work
into conversation whenever I can :)

Kou