Article published in:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 28:2 (2018) ► pp. 373–395

Negation in narrative

Why say what didn’t happen?

| Saarland University
Negation in narrative has been described primarily as a resource for expressing evaluation, and secondarily in its role in establishing orientation, but this article investigates a range of ways negated statements can contribute directly to complicating action. Negation works through presupposition in the rhetorical figure of paralipsis with phrases like “to say nothing of.” Reporting “I don’t see how she got in” presupposes that she got in. Semantic double negation in phrases like “never fail to” contributes to the complicating action. Idiomatic negatives like “didn’t go out” and negatives matching expectations like “didn’t go to sleep” mirror positive actions in the narrative model. Constructions coupling main clause negation with a positive embedded clause produce statements entailing actions in the chain of events, as in “I couldn’t face going back.” Taken together, these constructions provide powerful resources for contributing positively to the dynamic narrative model with negative statements.
Keywords: negation, evaluation, complicating action, orientation, paralipsis, presupposition
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • Negative versus positive
    • Negation inherently weaker
    • Negation more difficult
    • Negation and denial
  • Species of (non-narrative) negation in storytelling
    • Global negation ranges over a whole narrative or section of it
    • Negation in subordinate functions
    • Exculpation
  • Negation in orientation and evaluation versus action
  • Negation at the outset
  • Negated statements as narrative clauses: How to say something positive by saying something negative
    • Paralipsis and presupposition
    • Constructions positive via double negation
    • Standard idioms in negation
    • Negative for positive due to expectations
    • When saying not entails positive action
  • Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 19 October 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.17028.nor
References
Ayer, A. J.
(1963) Negation. Philosophical essays, 31, 6–65. London: Macmillan. (Reprinted from Journal of Philosophy, 491, 797–815 1952.)Google Scholar
Clark, H. H.
(1974) Semantics and comprehension. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Current trends in linguistics, vol. 12 (pp. 1291–1428). The Hague: Mouton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Corbett, E. P. J., & Connors, R. J.
(1998) Classical rhetoric for the modern student. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eco, U.
(1984) The role of the reader: Explorations in the semiotics of texts. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Horn, L. R.
(1989) A natural history of negation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O.
(1917) Negation in English and other languages. Copenhagen: Hoest.Google Scholar
Kissin, P.
(1969) Negation in natural language (Doctoral dissertation). University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms 1970.Google Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
(2013) The language of life and death: The transformation of experience in oral narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J.
(1967) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D.
(1978) Truth in fiction. American Philosophical Quarterly, 151, 37–46.Google Scholar
Ryan, M. -L.
(1985) The modal structure of narrative universes. Poetics Today, 6(4), 717–756. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1991) Possible worlds, artificial intelligence and narrative theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
(2006) From parallel universes to possible worlds: Ontological pluralism in physics, narratology and narrative. Poetics Today, 271, 633–674. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Strawson, P. F.
(1952) Introduction to logical theory. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Vickers, B.
(1988) In defence of rhetoric. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Volterra, V., & Antinucci, F.
(1979) Negation in child language: A Pragmatic Study. In E. Ochs & B. Schieffelin (Eds.), Developmental pragmatics (pp. 281–303). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Warhol, R.
(2007) Narrative Refusals and Generic Transformation in Austen and James: What Doesn’t Happen in Northanger Abbey and The Spoils of Poynton. The Henry James Review, 281, 259–268. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wason, P. C.
(1972) In real life negatives are false. Logique et Analyse, 151, 17–38.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Norrick, Neal R.
2020. The epistemics of narrative performance in conversation. Narrative Inquiry 30:2 ► pp. 211 ff. Crossref logo
Purcell, Carrie, Karen Maxwell, Fiona Bloomer, Sam Rowlands & Lesley Hoggart
2020. Toward normalising abortion: findings from a qualitative secondary analysis study. Culture, Health & Sexuality 22:12 ► pp. 1349 ff. Crossref logo
Van De Mieroop, Dorien
2021. The Narrative Dimensions Model and an exploration of various narrative genres. Narrative Inquiry 31:1 ► pp. 4 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.