Negacja a pragmatyka. Użycie operatora negacji nie w wypowiedziach performatywnych
Negation and Pragmatics: Use of the Negation Operator ‘Not’ in Performative Statements

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the pragmatic aspects of negation. Being aware of the fact that negation is a characteristic element of the entire set of speech acts, such as disagreement, opposition, counterargument, objection, complaint, etc., the author aims to determine to what extent this pragmatic character of negation is direct or indirect. Negation is a category of functional words the sphere of application of which is the assertive part of the sentence, i. e. semantic information. Performative verbs cannot be negated due to their status as physical entities, i. e., individual speech acts fulfilled at a specific time and place. Therefore, in the structure of speech acts, negation occurs mostly in the assertive part, and the negative semantic content contributes to the modification of the illocutionary function. As a result, syncretic and indirect speech acts are created. The negation operator is also added to performative verbs that stand in opposition to complementary antonyms (I let | I don’t let). Thus, the “not” operator functions as an element of the names of actions that are alternative to their affirmative counterparts.

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