How do we say 'no' depending on the language we speak?
Not all languages negate in the same way. Some add specific markers to verbs, others change the form of these verbs, and still others, like Catalan, rely almost entirely on a single word to carry the negative.
PalmAt the beginning of the year, lists proliferate: lists of things we will do, lists of things we will start, or lists of things we will, this time for sure, stick to. However, these lists can also include things we won't do: for example, we won't be late again, we won't repeat certain habits, we won't accept certain routines, or we will simply learn to say no to proposals that aren't right for us.
From a linguistic point of view, these statements are nothing exceptional. Negation is a basic operation of natural languages and appears in all registers, from informal conversation to administrative language. However, what is interesting is how each language encodes this operation.
Sentence 'Polarity'
Generally, saying that something doesn't happen, hasn't happened, or won't happen involves modifying the truth value of the sentence. In linguistics, negation is analyzed as a functional category (that is, as a grammatical element) that affects what is called the polarity of the sentence. For example, a phrase like 'It snowed yesterday' and its corresponding 'It didn't snow yesterday' share vocabulary and syntactic structure, but they don't convey the same information: in fact, they describe opposite events. This word 'more' (or 'less') therefore implies a grammatical instruction that invalidates the statement. Languages resolve this operation with diverse strategies. Broadly speaking, we can talk about analytical strategies, based on particles or auxiliary verbs (that is, on independent words), and synthetic strategies, which integrate negation into verbal morphology through affixes added to verbs. Catalan clearly falls into the first group. As we know, negation is constructed in a fairly stable way in our language: most of the time it is done with the particle NoThe negation element, which is invariable, does not agree with the subject or the verb tense and usually occupies a fixed position before the conjugated verb. Note, for example, that it functions the same in 'we are not here', 'it did not snow yesterday', and 'I will never do that again'.
However, this option is not universal. In Modern Greek, for example, negation is not resolved with a single form. In declarative sentences, that is, to describe a state or a fact of reality, the particle 'den', as 'den érhete' ('he's not coming'). However, in imperative or subordinate clauses, 'min', as 'min érthis!' ('Don't sell!'). Negation, in that case, is distributed according to the sentence type.
In other languages, negation is a central element of the verbal system. This is the case in Finnish, where negating a sentence involves conjugating a negative verb. In an affirmative sentence like 'tyttö lukee' ('the girl reads'), the main verb carries all the information. In contrast, in the negative form 'tyttö ei lue' ('the girl doesn't read'), is the verb 'ei' What is inflected—bringing the information from the third person singular—while the main verb appears in a non-finite form.
This strategy makes the negation not a simple external addition, but an element that reorganizes the entire verbal structure. To a lesser extent, this also happens in English in phrases like 'The girl doesn't read. ('the girl doesn't read'), in which the information of the negation and that of the third person singular are concentrated in the auxiliary and not in the main verb.
And there are still more systems. Negation can also be expressed by means of verbal affixes. In Czech, for example, the prefix 'ne-' to the conjugated verb: 'sem doma' ('we are at home') becomes 'we have taming' ('we are not at home'). In that case, the negation interacts directly with the other morphological markers of the verb.
Despite its apparent simplicity, the Catalan negative system has a particularly relevant feature: double negation, also known as negative agreement. Expressions like 'I haven't seen anyone', 'there's nothing', or 'he will never come' do not contain two independent negations. 'No' is the main marker of negation, while 'no one', 'nothing', and 'never' are elements that depend on this negation.
From a grammatical point of view, these words do not function as autonomous negations, but as what we call terms of negative polarity. This explains why, when they appear after the verb, the presence of 'no' is obligatory. Saying 'I have seen no one' and 'he will never come' is ungrammatical in Catalan. However, when these elements appear before the verb, the situation changes. In phrases like 'nobody has come' and 'nothing works', the negative polarity term can assume the function of the negative head, and the particle 'not' is optional or reinforcing depending on the variety.
This functioning is not universal. In standard English, each negative element contributes an independent negation. That is why the form 'And didn't see anybody' ('I didn't see anyone') is grammatical, while 'And didn't see nobody It is considered non-standard, although there are varieties of the language that do allow this type of construction.
From a linguistic typology perspective, then, Catalan exemplifies an analytical negation strategy (with an independent particle), not integrated into the verb and structurally stable—although it has negative agreement. The negative information is concentrated in an invariable particle that can appear alone or in combination with other elements of negative polarity. Other languages, on the other hand, distribute negation among auxiliary verbs, affixes, or particles with differentiated functions.
As always, there are no ways of negating that are simpler or more complex than others. Each language chooses a specific solution from the range of available possibilities. Negation is yet another example: an elementary grammatical operation that can adopt a range of different solutions, always systematic and fully functional.