Negation

[Allen Gardner]

On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Bernadet Hendriks wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Has anybody on this list who has done research into negation found a
> good method to elicit negative sentences in a natural way? So far I've
> mainly been looking at spontaneous discourse, but the number of negative
> sentences in discourse is sometimes suprisingly small. Has anyone
> developed any materials for elicitation of negative sentences? If so I'd
> be very grateful to know about it.
>
> Thanks,
> Bernadet Hendriks
>

I hoped that colleagues on this list would resonate to the
following discussion from Gardner, Gardner, & Van Cantfort (1989)
Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees, p. 65

    Creating appropriate contexts for some signs required a fair
amount of ingenuity.  In Project Washoe, for example, we had a
great deal of difficulty with NO.  At first, we tried to provoke
NO in response to clearly unreasonable demands, such as ordering
Washoe to bed in the middle of afternoon play or offering her a
bowl of rocks at mealtime.  This strategy failed, partly because
of Washoe's good nature (she sometimes allowed herself to be
marched off to bed or tried to lick the rocks) and partly because
she could evade difficult situations without saying anything at
all (she sometimes climbed a tree or spilled the rocks on the
floor).  Eventually, we hit on a stratagem that capitalized on
Washoe's good faith.  We told her a variety of tales of which the
following is typical.
    It is late in the day, and getting dark outside.  Washoe and
Roger Fouts are inside her house trailer.  Roger peers out the
window, comes back, and tells Washoe about the big black dog that
he sees out there and how the big black dog has long teeth and
eats baby chimpanzees.

        Roger: WANT GO OUT NOW/
       Washoe: NO/ (prolonged and emphatic)
        Roger: YOU BIRD/ (equivalent of "you're chicken")
(Washoe goes to the next room where she finds college football
                         lineman Linn)
       Washoe: YOU BIRD/ (to Linn)

    Scary tales of this sort were popular with all of the cross-
fosterlings and the bogey dog became a familiar phantom in
Washoe's young life.  We often got her to come inside in the
evening by spotting the BIG BLACK DOG coming.  The bogey dog
reappeared early in the second project with of Moja, Pili, Tatu,
and Dar.  It was rated as highly negative for the experiment on
announcements of affectively charged events reported in Chapter 2
of this volume and in Drumm, Gardner & Gardner (1986).

Allen Gardner
University of Nevada/296
Reno NV 89557
Voice 775-784-6828 ext 2024
Fax 775-784-1126
Email gardner at unr.edu