Tashkent state pedagogical university named after nizami faculty of foreign languages

CHAPTER 2. NEGATION IN ENGLISH, RUSSIAN AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

1. 
   Comparative analysis of negation in English, Russian and Uzbek
   

The study of the problem of negation and the means of its expression, due to its specificity, has always been interesting for scientists, but also it has brought great difficulties. Despite a considerable number of works devoted to the analysis of negative constructions, their structural and semantic potential still remains insufficiently researched.
In the existing practice of analyzing negative sentences, consideration of general theoretical issues on the material of particular languages ​​prevails, without attempts to establish systemic relations, understanding causal relationships, as well as identifying features of similarity and difference in systems of denial inherent in one or another language. The atomic approach to material interpretation observed in the scientific literature does not give convincing answers to many questions concerning the nature of the studied material. Means of expressing negation, does not always take into account the relationship of negation with the surrounding linguistic units, the semantic structure of the sentence. In addition, the issue of the classification of negative sentences, which could be applied to different languages, still remains controversial. In this work, the main attention is paid to the comparative analysis of negative constructions in the system of such different structured languages ​​as English, Russian and Uzbek.
Mono-negative languages ​​(Latin, English) use only one negative indicator: as a rule in generalized negative sentences, which is actually negative pronoun or adverb: lat. Neminem video = Eng. I see nobody (I don't see anyone). In this type of sentences, it is also possible to use adjective negation, which is combined with indefinite generalizing pronouns / adverbs: lat. Non video quisquam = English I don’t see anybody. These languages ​​do not allow the use of more than one denial indicator, which is reflected in the name of the entire system of negation as mononegative.
There are such sentences with negation where the meaning of the members accompanying the verbs is only formally positive and has non-affirmative - character. Such "non-affirmative" forms are also indicated by the term "assertion-suspending devices" [34, p.173] or “non-veridicality” [7; 28]. Many scientists call such vague pronouns / adverbs in non-assertive forms [14], since they are never actually used in affirmative sentences.
Based on the classification principle differently structured English and Russian and Uzbek languages have two semantic varieties of negation: non-generalized and generalized negation, - having their own formal means of expression: negative particles not and не, on the one hand, and negative / non-assertive pronouns of a generalizing nature, on the other. In Uzbek language which is agglutinative, where important role plays affixes, this function is done by the negative affix ма.
The presence or absence of semantically generalizing language units (negative and / or indefinite pronouns and adverbs) is the main criterion for differentiating the so-called generalized and non-generalized types of negation. The specificity of the semantics of negative pronouns and adverbs lies in their generalization of the entire sum of actants or sirconstants included in the sphere actions of denial. Consequently, this type of negative sentences - generalized negation - is distinguished by the maximum degree of the semantic volume of negation. Features of the structure of those types of negative sentences underlie the division of languages ​​into poly- and mononegative.
Taking this concept as a basis, using the material of the English and Russian languages, we found that in these two languages ​​of different structures, two semantic types of negation are also distinguished: non-generalized and generalized negation, which have their own formal means of expression: negative particles not and не, on the one hand, and negative / non-assertive pronouns of a generalizing nature, on the other.
In this chapter, we aimed to consider the structural models of generalized negation in mononegative English as opposed to polynegative Russian and Uzbek on the basis of the data and conclusions obtained as a result of the analysis of each of the forms, and also to identify the common for both languages in denial model.
Structural models of sentences with generalized negation in three different structures – English, Russian and Uzbek– languages ​​can be represented as a diagram suggested by Fayruzova [58]:



structural models of sentences with generalized negation in Russian and Uzbek

structural models of sentences with generalized negation in English





Model I



Model II

Model I





+ predicate

- predicate

• 
  predicate
  

Construction with – NP (…)

Construction with – NP (…) + (±) NP (…)

Construction with ± NP (…)

Construction with – NP + (±) NP (…)

Construction with

• 
  NP
  

The results of the comparison of schemes showing the structural models of generalized negative sentences in English, Russian and Uzbek (see the diagram) indicate more diverse variants of the design of this semantic model of denial in mononegative English as compared to polynegative Russian and Uzbek. Thus, if in Russian and Uzbek the predicate in negative sentences of this type can only be negative, then in English both options are possible: both negatively and positively formed predicate. Moreover, researches have shown that in English the latest model is preferred. In other words, the model Я вижу никого / Мен хеч кимни кўряпман which does not exist in the Russian and Uzbek language is typical for the English language - I see nobody. As one can see from the Uzbek example the negative pronoun consists of the participle хеч and the question word кимни, thus, most of the negative pronouns are composed by this structure: хеч ким, хеч нима, хеч қачон, etc.

From the point of view of the number and nature of generalized members of the sentence (GM) in both languages there is a certain parallelism: they have actually negative pronouns (NPr) of a generalizing character (-NP) and their non-assertive or negatively polarized analogs (± NP), which are combined in the same way with a correspondingly formed predicate. However, a more detailed analysis, in particular a comparison of quantitative data reflecting the frequency of use of each of the detected models, shows us other specific features of each type of negation.
In mononegative English (quite in accordance with the name) with a positive predicate (dominant model), it is possible to use only one proper NP of a generalizing character, all others generalizing pronouns (if necessary to include them in the context of the utterance) can used in unlimited quantities, but necessarily in a non-assertive form (I see nobody anywhere).
In the polynegative Russian language (and again quite in accordance with the name) negatively formed predicate can be combined with an unlimited number of actually negative generalizing members (Я не вижу никого и ничего, Мен хеч кимни ва хечнимани қўрмаяпман).
According to A.Fayruzova in Russian, non-assertive forms of generalizing terms in generalized negative sentences are used less often than in English; about 2% in the first case and 20.2% in the second [58]. However, it is in this area that a common model for such different types of denial is found – negative a formalized predicate in combination with a non-assertive generalizing term: