Tashkent state pedagogical university named after nizami faculty of foreign languages

Variety of means expressing negation as the main difficulty in teaching

A great variety of means of expressing negation in English creates difficulties in teaching English to Uzbek learners. It should be considered analyzed the types of negation before we start creating exercises for teaching negation. In this chapter we are going to analyze means of expression negation in English and Uzbek.

The first way of expressing negation to be discussed at this part of the research is the negation in the structure of the English sentence.
Depending on the attitude to reality the sentences are subdivided into affirmative and negative sentences. Sentences containing grammatically formed negation and affirmation are called negative-affirmative, and such sentences may be both simple and complex. Combining affirmation and negation can be one of the means of communication in case of asyndectic connection of the parts of complex sentences, which can also serve to express the meaning of comparison.
In cases where there is double negation in sentences (that is two negative particles), affirmative sentences are formed as the negation of negation which occurs in the sentence. In English, the negation in a sentence is expressed as follows:
а) by subject:
«All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does,
and that is his» (36, p.35).
«Nothing will induce me to part with Bunarry» (36, p.21).
What I suffer in that way no tongue can tell» (16, p.16).
b) by predicate:
«I haven't asked you to dine with me anywhere tonight» (Wilde, 1979:20).
«I haven't the smallest intention of doing anything of the kind» (36, p. 20). – У меня нет ни малейшего желания заниматься чем-либо
подобным.
«That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent» (36, p.21). –
In the last phrase negation is expressed with the help of negative particle В «not».
c) by object:
«I know nothing, Lady Blacknell» (36, p. 30).
«Не took no interest in people apart from their social position» (10, p.9).
d) by adverbial modifier of time:
«I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite twenty years younger»
(36, p. 23).
«In fact, I am never wrong» (36, p. 26).
«My own one, I have never loved anyone in the world but you» (36, p. 28).
f) by the whole sentence (with the help of negative conjunction):
«There were no cucumbers in the market this morning, sir» (36, p.27).
«I've never been so sure of anything in my life» (10, p. 25).
The previous examples show the negation in one and the same sentence. When there are more than one sentence negation can be in each of the sentence:
«She did not feel angry, she did not feel inclined to laugh, she did not know
what she felt» (10, p.75).
«He'd laugh and say that of course if he hadn't been such a kid he'd never
have had cheek to ask her» (10, p.73).
«His ear was perfect, and though he could not produce the right intonation
himself he would never let a false one pass in anyone else» (10, p.21).
Besides those examples it is allowed to combined negation in the main clause and verbal clause. In Infinitive, Gerundial, Participle clauses negation can be expressed as follows:
а) in cases when non-predicative form is the main component:
«I'm awfully sorry», I said, not knowing what else to say (Graham,
1976:35).
б) complex component:
Long after the lorry had gone... Lanny stood there, staring at nothing,
thinking of nothing, feeling nothing (3, p. 296).
Sometimes he would sit silent and abstracted, taking no notice of anyone
(23, p. 263).
In Infinitive, Gerundial, Participle clauses in the whole sentence can be used only one negation:
Not having any friends / having no friends
But sometimes two negations are possible in the main clause and in non-predicative constructions:
Would it not be better not to tell your father? (21, p. 115).
Having no new companions, nothing remained for him but to read (21,
p. 34).
L.Barhudarov and D.Shteling suggested the following grouping of the ways of expressing negations [45, p. 289-291]:
negative pronouns:
Nobody wanted to talk about it after that [27, p. 44].
But nothing happens here – inside [27, p.39].
None of us has heard it, that we could remember [27, p.116]. –
adverbs:
Never thought that he was a spy. (George B. Mair).
Negative conjunctions – neither... nor, not... nor:
But neither of you knew him as I did [27, p.46].
In his monograph "Negation as a logical-grammatical category " V. N. Bondarenko denotes such six ways of expressing negatives like: negative affixes; negative particles; negative pronouns and adverbs; negative conjunctions; negative prepositions - in some languages ​​postpositions; and implicit a way of expressing negation.
Further we will analyse common means of expressing negation in linguistic categories. And the first to analyse is morphological means of expressing negation: affixation, prefixation and suffixation which play specific role in word formation. Prefix do not form a new parts of the speech but can create new words from different parts of speech. New words remain the same part of speech from which they were formed:
common – uncommon
trained – untrained
grateful – ungrateful
responsible – irresponsible
ability – disability
approval – disapproval
trust – distrust
The largest group of prefixes in English is negative prefixes: - un ungrateful, unwritten, unhumanly.
The only thing that makes me unhappy is that I'm making you unhappy
[10, p.49].
Oh, that was unforgettable [27, p. 26].
I think that's unfair and also rather stupid and affected [27, p.25].
Prefix – in of Latin origin and borrowed from French: incorrect, indifferent
innumerable. It varies with «il-, im-, ir-»; «il-» in the words beginning with «l-»; «im-» in the words with «p-, b-, m-», and «ir-», with «r-»:
illegal, illiterate, immotile, irresponsible, impossible. Some words have semantic changes like in «infamous».
She had met innumerable people of all kinds and I think she summed them
up shrewdly enough according to the standards of the small Virginian town where
she was born and bred [10, p.78].
He'd have invented the most extravagant and incredible sins to confess to
[27, p. 32].
Must you talk in that awful dry inhuman way? [27, p. 38].
Не was indefatigable [10, p. 8].
Prefix «mis-» has German origin, with its help the new word is formed from verbal bases: mistrust, miscalculate, misfit, misguide.
Some words have the meaning of negation, others meaning of smth. wrong:
miscalculate, mistrust.
I have never begun a novel with more misgiving [10, p.3].
Prefix «dis-» is of Latin origin and was borrowed with French loans: disarm, discover, disdain, disfigure, disguise.
I do not want the reader to think I am making a mystery of whatever it was
that happened to Larry during the war that so profoundly affected him, a mystery
that I shall disclose at a convenient moment [10, p.52].
As a matter of fact, to be absolutely candid, I rather disliked him [27, p.23].
She is distressed now and trifle incoherent [27, p. 41].
Francesca disarranged the bed [27, p.40].
Prefix «anti-» is of Greek origin, and still keeps its original meaning of “against”. It was used in bookish literal style only, and often found in the words with social-political vocabulary and terms: antifascist, anticyclone, anticlimax,
antithesis. Graphically some words are written with hyphen: anti-social, anti-aircraft, anti-Jacobin, etc.
Prefix «counter-» is of Latin origin like anti имеет латинские корни, а также подобно prefix «anti-» still keeps its meaning and has the name of “prepositional prefix”. It entered the language in the Middle Age period with French borrowings. Its neaning is close to “anti” meaning against and used in literal-bookish style only, in social-political spheres and is always hyphened:
counter-act, counter-balance, counter-poise, counter-move.
Thus, it is possible to conclude that most of the negative affixes are prefixes.
The next step is to analyse lexical means of expression negation. Under the lexical means of expressing negation it is understood the method of expression with the help of the verbs having negative meaning:
- to deny – He denied breaking into the shop [25, p.106].
- doubt – I doubt whether he was really able to do that [25, p.106].
- to fail – I waved to Katherine, but failed to attract her attention [25, p.108].
- failure – Bobby had a sort of failure [25, p.108].
-lack – He used to have a lack of money [35, p.50].
- hardly – We could hardly understand him [35, p. 108].
This way of expression negation with the help of parts of speech is called lexical. In the words used in the speech there is a negative semantics. This is a popular means of expression negation, and all in all negation can easily transfer from one part of speech to another. For example, if to the verb «to fail» add suffix «–lure» the noun «failure» is formed, or to the verb «to doubt» added suffix «–ful» and form
«doubtful».
Negative pronouns can be compared with indefinite pronouns, as they do not have the subject and attribute. Pronoun “no” can serve as modifier and used as a modifier:
No cab came by, but the street boys did… [18, p.50]
Absence of anything can be expressed by negative pronoun” no” and used as an adjectival pronoun:
That’s no reason why I should have it [32, p.158]
Complex negative pronouns serve as subject member of the sentence. Pronoun “nobody” (no one) serves as a modifier and at the same time identifies noun:
It’s nobody’s fault, but your own.
Nobody, no one – personal, nothing – subjective. Both structures are like complex indefinite pronouns.
He cared for nobody and for nothing – except dominion and the wonders of
his brain. [4, p.300].
Pronoun «none» can be both personal and subjective, and has singular and plural meaning.
None, not even Mary, dared cross-examine Ralph… [4, p.304]. –
None of us can hold on forever [8].
Since the pronoun "none" is equivalent to substantiated phrase, it is combined with the verb in singular and plural forms, starting from the meaning of the phrases:
None of them were conscious of the date’s dose [18, p.120].
The pronoun "none" can be used to replace combinations with nouns meaning people and objects (personal and impersonal)
«–Have you got any spare pencil?» – «Nor, I have none…» (18, p.128).
The pronoun "neither" refers to a group of negative pronouns, and it shows that no one performs the action, and it is not the subject of the state. In a sentence the pronoun "neither" acts as a subject member of the sentence or modifier like:
Neither spoke, but the conversation that one could imagine was clearly as
follows… (18, p.136).
As a modifier «neither» functions as subjective noun: neither book, neither friend.
Expression of negation with particle «not» should also be analyzed. Particles of the English language are auxiliary parts of speech used in order to strengthen, clarify, limit or reject all other words or phrases in sentences. They are immutable words that concretize the meaning of words, add modal or expressive shades to other words or groups of words. These particles are intended to make it possible to form a semantic connection or grammatical form of a word. The particle "not", as a rule, refers to the predicate, and by predicate refers to the entire content of the sentence as a whole:
This did not prevent Julia from falling madly in love with him (Graham
10, p.22).
The "not" particle here acts as the main way of constructing negative sentence, but also, it can give a negative meaning to a word in such situations when it stands with a singular noun with indefinite article, and notices the absence of subject completely, that is expressed by a noun:
Not a head turned to see us (52, p.40).
Not a car has been sold (52, p.40).
The syntactic means of expressing negation is the next way to be analysed in this chapter. The syntactic way of expressing negation is possible due to the two-component one-dimensional neutralized opposition, consisting of dialectically interconnected grammatical categories of affirmation and negation. General concept of this opposition is the creation of a semantic connection in a sentence between modifiers that denote an action, subject and nature of the subject.
In Uzbek language it can be distinguished between the following types of negation: absolute negation, sentence negation, quantitative negation, special lexical negation, half-denial, formally divisible, but indivisible by content negation, negation of words, syntactic negation.
The means of expression negation are linguistic markers of other grammatical categories observed at different levels of analysis. They use the following linguistic tools for semantic negation:
Negative words: simple - йўқ, compound – хеч қачон, хеч нарса хеч бир;
Negative particle: - на, always accompanied by a special personal form of the word;
Negative affixes: prefixes но-, бе-; suffixes – ма:
The other means are half-negations сал-пал, зўрға - when using these means in the sentences, the sentence has a divisive meaning but has a meaning of half-negation.
The transformation equivalent of “Мен уни зўрға танийман” is “Мен уни яхши тинимайман” which means “Мен танимоқчи бўлган шахсни тўлиқ кўз ўнгимга ифода эта олмайман” (I barely know him).