CC BY
26
UDC 8.228
Toshhonov L. T.
English language teacher of institute Andijan agriculture and agrotechnologies
Andijan, Uzbekistan
THE CATEGORY OF NEGATION IN MODERN ENGLISH
Annotation. This article is devoted to the study of the category of negation in the English language. To do this, it is necessary to study the nature and nature of negation, find out its semantics and structure, take into account the various means of expressing the category of negation, and also take into account the pragmatic aspect and identify the concept of negation as a category of logic. In other words, it is necessary to consider not only the lexical and grammatical forms of expression of negation, but also to study in detail their interaction within the framework of the statement, as well as their pragmatic conditioning.
Key words: the category of negation, implicit negation, explicit negation, means of expressing negation, the logical category of negation, approaches to the study of negation.
Linguistic category, negation is traditionally viewed in a systematic way, through a set of verbs and other forms, which is reflected in theoretical studies and practical manuals and textbooks on grammar. A.I. Smirnitsky, E.I. Shendels, L.A. Novikov, V. Havers, A. A. Potebnya and others. To study multilateral and a comprehensive description of the concept of negation is to take into an account its lexical and grammatical structure and pragmatic focus.
To achieve the goal, we need to solve the following specific tasks:
• give a definition of the concept of the category of negation;
• consider negation as a logical category;
• consider different approaches to the study of the category of denial in the linguistic aspect;
• analyze the lexical and grammatical means of expressing the category of negation;
• study the functional features of the expression of the category of negation;
Considering different approaches to the study of negation, one can notice that the concept of the category of negation is closely related to the semantic meaning of the statement, that is, with the concept of the category of logic, with formal-logical and linguistic negation.
Logical negation, that is, its formal content (nonexistence, absence, otherness, etc.) is a linguistic universal, since it finds expression in the system of all known languages of the world. However, formal logic knows only opposite
poles of judgments: affirmative and negative. In natural language, between these two opposite poles, there is a whole scale of intermediate semantic meanings, approaching either assertion or negation. These facts indicate that negative and affirmative judgments are not always in oppositional relationships in natural language. To express one logical form in speech, a rich variety of linguistic forms (lexical, grammatical, phonetic) is found each time.
Linguistic means of expressing logical negation used in negative judgments are generally accepted to be combined into two large groups: explicit and implicit. Explicit negation is expressed with the help of formal grammatical and lexical means, the form of implicit negation is expressed with the help of some words, phrases and phraseological phrases with negative semantics that do not have corresponding positive forms.
Examples of explicit negation include sentences:
Boo wasn't crazy ...
"I don't want you hollerin' something..."
"I don't want to go home," she suddenly cried in distress and anguish"/ In these sentences, explicit negation is expressed by the verb form to be in the past tense and the negative particle not.
Examples of implicit denial:
His absence was very strange ... / 19, p.25 /.
The lack of knowledge let him down / 19, p.140 /.
He failed to appear at the moment / 20, p. 26 /.
"Stop talking!" / 20 p. 63 /.
In these examples, the words absence, stop, fail to and lack of have negative semantics, the meanings of absence, lack, therefore, to express the implicit negation of the negative particle to be is not required.
The logical negation, in contrast to the assertion, which is characterized by a zero indicator in the language, gets its expression using the lexical, syntactic and grammatical means of the language. In addition, negation can be expressed explicitly (at the lexical level - using negative affixes, particles and grammatical means) and implicitly (words with negative semantics and various syntactic constructions).
In the logical-grammatical analysis of negative sentences, the question arises about the objective meaning (real reference) of negation.
For example: They persisted in pleading Not Guilty to first-degree murder.
They didn't persist in pleading Guilty to first-degree murder ...
In the first case, the negation is expressed in the addition (Not Giulty), and in the second - in the predicate (didn't persist), so the meaning of these sentences cannot be identical.
One of the reasons giving rise to difficulties in defining the objective meaning of a negative sentence is the broad understanding of negation as an expression of the idea of absence. However, it must be canceled that it is
impossible to reflect in the content of the proposal that which does not exist. The lack of an unambiguous answer to the question about the real referent of negation leads to the fact that some opponents of the theory of reflection believe that negative sentences do not carry any information about the real world and have no cognitive value.
Many linguists, such as O. Jespersen, A. A. Potebnya, A. Vezhbitskaya, dealt with the problem of denial, considered denial from various angles and put forward their own concepts. There are a large number of different opinions, approaches to the study of the category of denial, but we will consider only the most basic:
According to R.I. Ibanezu, negation can be defined as a syntactic category. He believes that denial is not always realized only in a negative form; it can be expressed in other linguistic ways or implicitly. Therefore, negation is a purely semantic category, expressed by a variety of morphological and syntactic means. According to the author, affirmation and denial are two poles of one dimension. Denial is a purely linguistic category, since in pragmatics there is no alternative "affirmation and denial": both positive and negative sentences can express the same state of affairs, for example:
Miss Caroline was no more than twenty-one. She looked and smelled like a peppermint drop.
He is not sleeping at the moment. He is awake.
According to E. Schmidt, denial is a communicative operation of the speaker in a communicative action game, more precisely, denial is a class of communicative operations with a similar function. Denial, according to E. Schmidt, is not a grammatical category, but a complex communicative operation, with the help of which the speaker communicates to the addressee his attitude to a certain fact of the communicative game of actions. Therefore, denial is viewed as an intra-linguistic phenomenon: it is a communicative operation (action) that rejects or corrects the addressee's opinion. From the true fact that there is no denial as such in reality itself, an erroneous conclusion is made that denial is a purely linguistic category that expresses the speaker's attitude to the opinion of a given state of affairs, which is assessed as incorrect.
Many linguists see negation as an independent linguistic category that has a correspondence in the real world. This point of view on the nature of the grammatical category of negation was for the first time most consistently presented by EI Shendels, in whose opinion affirmation and negation convey the real connections of objects and phenomena of reality.
In the opinion of this scientist, negation as a linguistic category is an expression with the help of certain linguistic means of negative connections between concepts. This definition is hardly satisfactory, since from the point of view of grammar in negation we are dealing not with concepts - the object of the study of logic, but with the members of the sentence and their grammatical meanings. In the very definition, a logical error (tautology) was made, when the
unknown is also defined through the unknown, namely: negation is an expression of negative, that is, negative, connections between concepts.
Some authors consider negation as an expression of logical negation, while others - as an element of the meaning of the sentence. For example, according to N.G. Ozerov, the grammatical category of negation expresses logical negation, which, in turn, reflects the absence of real connections between certain phenomena of reality. The categorical meaning of negation in this concept is limited to the expression of the absence of only objective connections. In reality, however, denial expresses the absence of not only connections, but also the objects themselves, phenomena and their signs. Closer to the truth are those authors who, by negation, understand the expression of precisely the absence, not the existence of something in objective reality.
In psychology, denial was viewed as a purely subjective manifestation of the human psyche. Denial is supposedly the product of various psychic (sensory) reactions of the speaker.
B. Delbruck understood negation "as a sign that there is a contradiction between the expected and the actual; he reduced the meaning of denial to the expression of a feeling of disappointment, contrast about the absence of the expected phenomenon. "
As O. Jespersen believed, denial is a feeling of disgust; "The old negation "no" he regarded as primitive interjections of disgust. In his opinion, negative sentences serve to express contradiction and indicate the opposite.
In this case, denial acts not as a denial of reality, but as a manifestation of the human psyche, as an expression of certain psychological reactions, emotional feelings. According to E.V. Vasilieva, the meaning of denial is irreducible to the expression of disappointment, contrast, resistance. This can be proved by the following example:
Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence. She was a Graham from Montgomeny; Atticus met her when he was first elected to the state legislature /19, c.6 /.
"Well, I did think of one think - rather odd - of a girl at Cambridge that I might have - you know; I was glad I hadn't got her on my mind. Anyhow, old chap, I owe it to you that I'm here; I should have been in the big dark by now / 20, c. 223/.
No feelings of frustration or resistance are expressed in these sentences. Therefore, not all negative constructions are emphatic, that is, not all forms of denial express the feelings and emotions of a person.
Summing up the analysis of the concepts of denial in language, the following can be noted. According to scientists, the psychological and pragmatic concepts of denial seem to be insufficient for understanding the essence of the category of denial, since the determinism of denial is not recognized by objective reality: denial is either a pure product of the human psyche, or only an intralingual function - the expression of the speaker's opinion about someone's
thought. Denial can be considered as one of the ways of objection, prohibition, unwillingness (V. Havers, A. Vezhbitskaya and other authors) and that one of the pragmatic functions of denial can be the rejection of the opinion of the participant in the communication, its correction, or the prohibition of any action (R. I. Ibanez).
The semantics of affirmation and negation is a logical property of a proposition-judgment (in classical two-valued logic, a statement that is true when affirmed becomes false when it is denied and, conversely: true when it is denied, it becomes false when it is affirmed). But it is at the same time a grammatical property of the sentence, since there are special forms of sentences to express the indicated differences.
In the real process of thinking, logical forms do not exist separately from the concrete content of thoughts, but the latter is not included in the study of formal logic - the science of the forms (structures) of thought. She explores logical forms taken in abstraction from the concrete content of thoughts. Formal logic is also abstracted from the features of the linguistic expression of thoughts that are of interest to grammar. This general proposition rightfully applies to formal-logical negation. Formal logic considers negation without regard to the means of its expression. For grammar (syntax), these two sentences have completely different structures. The world is endless. = the world doesn't end. Here one logical negation is conveyed by different linguistic means. This also suggests that logical negation is not expressed in a particular language in the most economical way (redundancy in the language).
The system of linguistic categories and meanings, in general, corresponding to the system of logical categories and forms, allows expressing any logical relations, regardless of whether there is a one-to-one correspondence between them (logical and linguistic relations) or not. In this regard, denial is no exception. Therefore, formally - logical negation has, in principle, the same meaning as that used in natural language, only refined: the negation operator has a precise, fixed, unambiguous meaning.
The logical meaning of negation and the linguistic expression of negation may not coincide. Thus, negative linguistic forms do not always express logical negation. For example, the word priceless means a positive concept, namely precious. Conversely, positive linguistic forms can express logical negation -negative concepts, for example: single = unmarried, blind = eyeless. In addition, in words like blind and eyeless (they express the absence of sight and hearing, respectively, that is, negation), grammar, unlike logic, does not see any negation.
In linguistic literature, it is noted that the main content of the grammatical category of negation is logical negation. This point of view is shared by such scientists as E. I. Shendels, E. A. Vasilieva, N. G. Ozerova, L. P. Shipulina, V. N. Zenchuk, L. A. Novikov.
So, according to EI Shendels, the logical category of affirmation and negation constitutes the main content of the linguistic category, but does not fill it entirely. The linguistic category of affirmation or negation performs other functions as well, has relative independence and has its own scope of meanings that is not adequate to the logical category. The use of negative means in a sentence may serve very different purposes than expressing a negative judgment. In other words, not every negative sentence corresponds to a negative judgment. It can correspond to a positive judgment and serve as a means of expressing not a judgment, but a prohibition, a question, etc.
Sum up, As mentioned above, the logical content of the linguistic category of negation is non-being, otherness, difference, deprivation, and so on. At the same time, the content of linguistic denial may include other denotative particular meanings, such as: disagreement, objection, refusal, prohibition, protest, and some others. Therefore, negation can be viewed as a formal universal common to all languages. It is a component of thought and the sentence that expresses it. The logical meaning of negation and the linguistic expression of negation may not coincide.
References:
[1] Klima, E, (1964), "Negation in English", in Fodor and hatz.'eds
[2] Lakoff, G. (1965), Irregularity in Syntax. Holt, Rinehart, л Winston, New York.
[3] L.T. Toshhonov, H.T. G'ofurova "Forming negation with the prefixes", Вопросы науки и образования № 7 (91), 2020 Москва", page 32.
[4] Toshhonov LX, Gofurova H.T. Role of antonym in the development of students' speech. Electronic journal of "Вопросы науки и образования" № 15 (99), 2020, Page 56
[5] O. Mo'minov. Lexicology of the English Language. -Tashkent. 2008. Page 32
