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Examples. "I have no car", "I have no TV". BUT "I have not a car"
There was a thread on it, but the answers were pretty superficial to say the least and only based on someone's opinion. I read a whole book (by Seonaid Beckwith) about articles and there is not a single word about that, which is amazing to me. Does anybody actually know the rule? Please, no opinions :)
"A" is like saying "one":
Logically then, saying "no" is like saying "zero":
Therefore, there is no need for an article.
"Not" is neither a determiner nor an article, so saying "I haven't a car" is fine as it is (although one is more likely to say "I don't have a car" or, for Americans, "I haven't got a car").
Articles belong to a group of words called "determiners". Besides articles, there are other determiners in the English language, and "no" is a determiner too.
Let me quote from BBC:
No is a determiner expressing quantity like 'all', 'every', 'many', 'some', 'any', 'each', 'either', 'one', 'another' and is used before singular and plural nouns. It is similar in meaning to 'not a' or 'not any' and is often our preferred choice if we want to give emphasis to what we are saying.
A singular countable noun like car should have some determiner before it, and no suits the purpose. No additional determiner is required.
Indeed, in some cases we do combine not with a, I'm not sure what the grammar says about this. "I have not a car" sound quaint and wrong in modern English. Maybe several hundred years ago it was more acceptable?
In certain constructions not a + singular count noun certainly remains in use:
Not a shirt on my back,
Not a penny to my name,
Lord, I can't go back home this way.
("500 miles", a song)
I don't recall the rule explaining this.
I have no car. [no ---> adjective]
I have no a car. ✖ [Two determiners : 'no' & 'a' cannot be used together.]
I have not a car. I don't have a car. I haven't got a car. [not ---> adverb]
The indefinite article a/an historically originates simply as an unstressed version of the numeral one. Some linguists have even argued that semantically, what is called the "indefinite article" is still just a specialized numeral.
And the "negative quantifiers" none and no historically originate from fusion of a negative adverb ne (not used anymore as an independent word) and the numeral one (or indefinite article a/an). The n sound at the end was lost when a following noun was present, as with the word mine/my.
There is no article after no in I have no car because in syntax, no behaves like it contains the indefinite article already.
In British English, "I haven't got a car" is common usage (Americans would be more likely to say "I don't have a car"). "I have no car" is also quite acceptable.
Why doesn't "I have not a car" work? It's confused by the fact that "have" is used as both as an auxiliary verb ("I have seen her") and to mean "own" or "possess" ("I have a car"). But the negative "have not", is only ever used as an auxiliary. In any case, we don't normally negate a verb by adding "not". We don't say "I walk not to work": it's clear what it means, but it's not idiomatic; we say instead "I don't walk to work".
As for the absence of an article, in the sentence "I have no car", the word "no" is essentially performing the same grammatical function as "a" in "I have a car". "a" means one, "no" means zero, you don't want to say "one" and "zero" because they contradict each other. But perhaps I'm appealing too much to logic; idioms often defy logic.
Afterthought: what about "I haven't a clue."? Not to mention "I haven't the faintest idea."? I think we just have to dismiss those as irregular.
"I have no car" is more likely to be used to negate an unjustified assumption, such as "Do you drive a 4x4?", or "Would you drive me to the airport?".
