21.2967, Disc: Refuting the Negative in Conversation/Discourse

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LINGUIST List: Vol-21-2967. Sun Jul 18 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.2967, Disc: Refuting the Negative in Conversation/Discourse

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1)
Date: 15-Jul-2010
From: Sherri Condon < scondon at mitre.org >
Subject: Refuting the Negative in Conversation/Discourse
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:09:50
From: Sherri Condon [scondon at mitre.org]
Subject: Refuting the Negative in Conversation/Discourse

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=21-2967.html&submissionid=2641336&topicid=5&msgnumber=1
  

I am submitting this query for a friend/colleague in child development.  
He has identified an interesting pattern, and we wonder whether 
anyone else has identified/researched it.  He called it 'refuting the 
negative' and describes it like this:

We ask our young adults to describe, in many ways, their experiences 
with adoption, with contact with their birth parents, with friends, etc. - 
and so they have many opportunities to make evaluative statements. 
Sometimes they make a positive statement by taking a negative and 
refuting it.

For example, when asked how they feel about not having contact with 
their birth mother, one respondent said 'It doesn't bother me.' They 
didn't say 'It's fine' -- rather, they took the negative stance and then 
refuted it.

Here are some other examples:
How did you come to this decision (not to seek further information 
about your birth father)? 'Never felt the need. I don't feel empty.' (as if 
anticipating and negating what she thought would be a response).

When asked to tell a story about the family they grew up in... 'My family 
has always treated me and my brother as their children. I have never 
felt adopted.' (implying that there is something inherently negative 
about 'feeling adopted' - but that doesn't describe him).

Another: 'Since I was adopted when I was so young, I don't feel like I'm 
any different from other people.'  (as if being adopted is supposed to 
mean you are different).

Please reply to my email: scondon at mitre.org.  I will submit a summary 
to the list, if there are responses.

Thanks,
Sherri Condon 


Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
                     Pragmatics





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