Negation and Being Daniel

NEGATION IS SOMETHING THAT WE DO. It is typically a judgment that we make, a judgment that something is not the case, and it usually—albeit by no means exclusively—takes the form of a statement. We make negative existential judgments (“There is no longer a Cold War,” “Inflation doesn’t exist in this economy”) and negative predicate judgments (“Two is not greater than three,” “The suspect’s not ready to talk”). Negations such as these are commonplace, in our lives and in our grammar, and they may well be a distinctive feature of human communication. Almost two decades ago Jon Barwise made the observation: “All human languages contain one or more mechanisms of a negative character; no animal communication does.” Even if this