Logic Meets Syntax: Types of Negation in the Terminology of Gerhard Helbig and Joachim Buscha

This article aims to review the traditional understanding of contrast and negations of nouns or sentences from the perspective of the dual structure of sentences in German, English and Polish (Subject NP+ Predicate VP). The common ground for the revision is the theory of sentence construction by Joachim Buscha and Gerhard Helbig, which continues the dichotomy of the group of the subject and that of the predicate in the sense of Chomsky. In the light of this theory, the glottodidactic objective of VP is not only to legitimize the above logical ratio with a dialectic division for contradictions/contrasts and negations/rejections in their sentential contexts. The problem is then to build the system of the terminology. This approach does involve problems with the semantics of “definite” with its contrast as “not definite” and with the “indefinite” as rejection. The consequence is a problematic terminology for the area in the sentence that is to be rejected.