engleski

Negative prefixes in English, Croatian and Russian

In order to express positive and negative ideas and facts, human language uses various structures and forms. Negation in language can be grammatically instantiated through negative markers, i.e. elements that indicate which part of a sentence is negated. Their forms and positions represent the main criteria for distinguishing negation types, and the most general division is into sentential and constituent negation. The most frequent grammatical forms in expressing negation are negative particles and negative morphemes, i.e. affixes. Negative affixes, in most cases prefixes, are attached to certain lexemes, giving them a contrary or contradictory meaning. Such negatively affixed forms are used on different occasions, for example in expressing oppositeness, or organising an utterance in a way that it sounds less marked. They are present, among other, in English, and in most cases they have affixed equivalents in other languages, as in Croatian or Russian. However, on certain occasions a negatively affixed English form can have only a sentential negation Croatian or Russian equivalent, whereas if the two Slavic languages are compared, such occasions are rare.

affixal negation; negative prefixes; negative meaning

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