not

   Sometimes when writers invert the normal word order of a sentence to place greater emphasis on not, they present the reader with a false parenthesis. It is a fault to which even usage guides are sometimes prey, as here: "Could not that lingua franca be, not Esperanto, Vblupiik, or even English, but humor?" (John Simon, Paradigms Lost). As punctuated, the phrase "not Esperanto, Vblupiik, or even English" is parenthetical. But if we deleted it (as we should be able to do with all parenthetical expressions), the sentence would read, "Could not that lingua franca be but humor?" The first comma is wrong and should be deleted. Except when the sentiment is pithy ("Death be not proud"), such sentences are usually clumsy, which may account for the urge to embellish them with unnecessary punctuation.