no and not usage in sentences

Question

I have two sentences.

1. With no electric charge and slight mass, the neutrino does not work together with other particles.
2. It was not a hasty and extreme alteration of the political organization.

and I found the phrases with "no" and "not" mean that

1. Without electric charge and with slight mass ~
2. it was not a hasty and not(nor) extreme alteration ~

My question is what makes the differences when it comes to interpretation of "no" and "not"!

In the first sentence, the "no" is linked to only electric charge, but in the second, the "not" is linked to both a hasty and extreme alteration.

Is is only the differences between the words "no" and "not" or is there any sentence structure matters with them? :)

Answer 1

With no electric charge and slight mass ...

The word no is acting as an adjective, equivalent to the lack of both positive and negative. From another perspective it is modifying "charge" in the same way "slight" modifies "mass" later. There is sort of a parallelism which defeats no's application to "slight mass". Consider if there had been a positive charge. Would it even occur to you to carry "positive" through to make it "positive slight mass"?

In other cases, no can carry through. For example, I saw no cats, dogs, or gerbils, but there was a skunk. However, the word but begins a different clause, into which no is not welcome.

It was not a hasty and extreme alteration.

Here not is an adverb, modifying the verb. Since the verb applies to both sides of the and, so does not. The word but can still override the not, however: It was not a hasty alteration but a meticulously planned one.

Answer 2

It depends on which words are connected to which. In your examples...

“With no electric charge and slight mass...”

The “no” modifies “charge"(noun) and “slight” modifies “mass”(noun). But in

“It was not a hasty and extreme alteration...”

The “not” modifies the (linking-verb) “was” which links to the (noun) “alteration” which in turn is described by BOTH adjectives "hasty" and "extreme". Therefore "not" applies to both. To make this one follow the pattern in the first example, you have to make the "not" refer to the word "hasty" directly, as in this very awkward example:

"It was a not hasty and extreme alteration."

Now the negative ("not") only applies to the first adjective ("hasty").