THE CATEGORY OF NEGATION AND ITS ETHNOCULTURAL SPECIFICITY

THE CATEGORY OF NEGATION AND ITS ETHNOCULTURAL SPECIFICITY

Author:  L. A. Kozlova

Abstract: 
Ethnogrammar as one of the new branches of grammatical theory involves the problem of how the mentality and the cultural values of various linguocultural communities find manifestation in the grammatical structure of a language. The category of negation is one of the most culture-sensitive categories. Its culture-sensitive character is revealed in such specific features as mononegativity, the use of implicit negators, the tendency to place negators in the modus of the utterance. As the analysis shows this specificity reflects such principles of British communicative culture as lack of assertiveness, tentativeness, understatement, principle of politeness.

Keywords:  ethnogrammar, mentality, cultural values, implicit negators, modus of the utterance, lack of assertiveness