In
linguistics and
grammar,
affirmative and
negative are terms of opposite meaning which may be applied to statements,
verb phrases,
clauses, and some other
utterances. Essentially an affirmative (positive) form is used to express the validity or
truth of a basic assertion, while a negative form expresses its falsity. Examples are the
sentences "Jane is here" and "Jane is not here"; the first is affirmative, while the second is negative.