Negation is an operation to deny the truth of a proposition, such as "John is NOT tall". Negation results sometimes, but not always in the opposite meaning.
Questions tagged [negation]
49 questions
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Why are negative verbs/sentences commonly used in invitations and suggestions?
I realized that in that some of the languages I speak or learn, negative verbs or sentences are used when inviting someone or suggesting something. While this sounds correct and I'm definitely used to it, I want to know if there's something about…
anon
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Jespersen's Cycle - why is it defined cycle?
In his excellent work, Negation in English and Other Languages (1917), Otto Jespersen has discovered a pattern that describes how linguistic negation shifts between several stages:
Negation is expressed by a single negative marker (NEG1);
Negation…
Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
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Examples of languages that distinguish fewer modal categories in the negative than they do in the affirmative
Are there any languages that distinguish fewer modal categories in the negative than they do in the affirmative?
I can think of one example of a language, Burmese, that appears to show fewer tense-aspect distinctions in the negative than in the…
Greg Nisbet
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The use of negations in fuzzy-data-to-text system
I have been given the task for my bachelor thesis to investigate how doctors can benefit from the use of negations in sentences that reflect physiological sensor data such as heart- and respiratory rates.
The interest of this mainly comes from the…
sockevalley
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Is there any logic to required double negatives, or is that "just the way it is"?
In English, double-negatives are considered ungrammatical
We don't have no money.
Except when you actually mean it...
There's not nothing in the box... it's full of packing peanuts!
But in some other languages (I'll use Spanish, as it's the one…
Flimzy
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'What one didn't see was anything' is weird. So why has it persisted?
John McWhorter PhD Linguistics (Stanford). The Power of Babel (2003). pp. 226-227.
I don't know how to replicate the format on the para. on p. 227 on Old English.
I didn't spot the red underline overhead before, but I now agree with McWhorter…
user5306