Do わずかに and しか alter the negation of negative verb to make the meaning positive?+Cases when 行っていません expresses the past?


私は学校へわずかに二ヶ月しか行っていません。 Translation was:

  1. I only went to school for barely 2 months.

My understanding of the sentence was: 2)[I _don't/didn't go_ to school for
**barely 2 months only** ].

Why would 1) be correct and 2) wrong?

3)If the sentnece were: 私は学校へわずかに二ヶ月 ~~しか~~ 行っていません。would the translation be
[I _don't/didn't go_ to school for barely 2 months ~~only~~.] or would it keep
being [I ~~only~~ went to school for barely 2 months]

My second question is: _What are the cases when 行っていません expresses the past
rather than the present?_




Not `わずかに`, but `しか` does get a negative verb at the end while maintaining a
positive meaning.

There is a pattern: **しか＋ないverb** meaning "only something" (positive
sentence). eg:

> この学校で田中さんしか知らないです。- I only know Tanaka-san in this school.

> 朝ごはんは、トーストしか食べなかったんですよ。- I only had a toast for breakfast. [For further
> reference.](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/12594/whats-the-
> difference-
> between-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%97%E3%81%8B%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84-and-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91%E3%81%97%E3%81%8B%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84)

So if we breakdown the sentence

> 私は学校へわずかに二ヶ月しか行っていません

学校へ is taking the verb 行っていません, but since it is inside the aforeamentioned
"しかない pattern", it becomes only go / only went. わずかに purpose here is to only
serve as an adverb for the verb 行く. Therefore:

> I only went to school for barely two months.

3 - Yes, it would mean something like "I did not go to school for barely two
months" / "I haven't been to school for barely two months"

About your ~~forth~~ second question: It can mean that when you haven't done
something in the past, but it is always in the negative tense, and you gotta
be careful to not mistake it with `ことはない pattern`.

I made the same question some years ago, and the answer was something like
this:

> 見てない also has the meaning "Someone doesn't(has not) see(seen) something ",
> but the nuance of "ever" is less. [See the full
> answer.](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/52901/16104)

