Positive Rhetoric Affirmative Sentences

The word affirmative simply means that you are stating something is so. By extension, in English grammar, an affirmative statement is any sentence or declaration that is positive. An affirmative statement can also be referred to as an assertive sentence or affirmative proposition: Birds fly, Rabbits run, and Fish swim are all affirmative sentences where the subjects are actively doing something, thereby making a positive statement about the noun in motion. An affirmative word or  sentence  is usually contrasted with a negative sentence, which commonly includes the negative particle  not. Examples of negative statements include: Rabbits dont fly and People dont float. An affirmative sentence, by contrast, is a statement that  affirms  rather than negates a proposition. Meaning of Affirmative An affirmative word, phrase, or sentence expresses the validity or truth of a basic assertion, while a negative form expresses its falsity. The sentence, Joe is here would be an affirmative sentence, while Joe is not here would be a negative sentence. The word affirmative is an adjective. It describes something.  Affirmative can be defined as affirming  or assenting, or asserting the truth, validity, or fact of something. It can also refer to the process of expressing agreement or consent as well as assenting. As noted, it is also a statement that is positive, not negative. Most of the sentences in this article are affirmative statements in that they affirm the propositions the writer is introducing. Not surprisingly, affirmative sentences make up the majority of spoken English. Using Affirmative Sentences Although not essential to conveying clear thought, it would be rather odd if you spoke in only negative sentences, arriving at a point only by denying all other options—such as saying, The person isnt a boy, when you really mean, shes a girl, or The house pet is not a bird, reptile, fish, or dog when you really mean its a cat. Using the negative in these cases convolutes the sentences; its better to simply make affirmative statements: Shes a girl, or The house pet is a cat. For that reason, most sentences are formed—like this one—as affirmative, unless the speaker or writer is deliberately contradicting a differing point or opinion. Unless you are trying to say no, your sentence is likely to be affirmative in form.   Interestingly, the rule of double negatives applies to affirmative sentences as well, meaning that if you say, I am not not going to the movies, the sentence is affirmative because the meaning of not not doing something is that you are  doing something. Polarity Another way to think of the meaning of affirmative or an affirmative sentence is by exploring the concept of  polarity. In linguistics, the distinction between positive and negative forms may be expressed  syntactically  (To be or not to be),  morphologically  (lucky vs. unlucky), or  lexically  (strong vs. weak). These phrases all contain the affirmative word or phrase and its opposite, a negative word or phrase. To be or not to be, a famous phrase from Act 3, Scene 1 of Shakespeares play, Hamlet, finds the title character pondering whether he should exist (which would be affirmative) or not exist (which would be negative). In the second example, you could say: He is lucky, which would be an affirmative statement, or He is unlucky, which would be a negative statement. In the last example, you might declare, She is strong, which has an affirmative meaning, or She is weak (not strong), which has a negative connotation. Affirmative vs. Negative Suzanne Eggins, in her book, Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics, provides an excellent example that illustrates the meaning of affirmative, and its polar opposite, negative: A  proposition  is something that can be  argued but argued in a particular way. When we exchange information we are arguing about whether something  This harkens to the concept at the beginning of this article: An affirmative word or statement means that something is so, while a negative word or statement—its polar opposite—means that something is not so. So, the next time you are trying to make a case for a given issue or argue that something is true, remember that you are expressing an affirmative idea: Donald Trump is a good president, She is a strong person, or, He has great character. But, be prepared to defend your position against others who disagree, and would argue the negative: Donald Trump is not a good president, She is not a strong person, and, He has little (or no) character.