Sentence function: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:24, 1 March 2009

Revision as of 05:25, 1 March 2009

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A declarative statement should not be deemed synonymous with an [[affirmative]] one. This is because although a declarative statement can state facts (given that the speaker is not consciously lying), it can also express something which is not true. The information he or she is providing, (regardless of whether it be true or not in ''reality''), is in fact true or false to that speaker. Therefore, a declarative can be either in the affirmative or in the [[negative]], and we can say that, ''Joanna is late'' and ''Joanna is not late'', both technically qualify as declarative sentences. Declarative refers to a sentence's function or purpose, while the terms affirmative or negative deal with the sentence's veracity, which is why they can overlap.

Another mistake is to confuse the affirmative for the [[positive]]. Although it can semantically seem natural that positive should be the opposite of negative and therefore synonymous with affirmative, grammatically speaking, they are separate entities. ''Positive'' in linguistic terms refers to the degree of the quality of an adjective or adverb (along with the [[comparative]] and [[superlative]]), while ''affirmative'' refers to the perceived validityveracity of the ''entire'' sentence.

Thus, again being separate entities, an adjective or adverb can be in the positive degree but expressed in the negative, so that the sentence: ''This hummer does not seem to be very eco-friendly'', has all negative, positive, and declarative properties.