| 词组 | affirmative, negative |
| 释义 | affirmative, negative An objection is sometimes made to the use of affirmative and negative in such sentences as "The witness answered in the negative." Copperud 1964, 1970, Flesch 1964, Watt 1967, and Heritage 1982 may be recorded among the objectors; Gowers (in Fowler 1965) objects to it as pompous; he sees it as a Parliamentary convention that has been satirized to such an extent that it is now seldom used in Britain. He has also found it in American use, however, and he quotes an effusion of self-evident pomposity. Copperud 1970 also notes a magazine report that secretaries at NASA headquarters in Houston were then saying "negative" rather than "no." The practice presumably derives from military aviation use, where affirmative and negative replace yes and no in radio communications as less likely to be garbled by static: • ... the squawk box rasped, "Admiral, 1591 says he will have to ditch." "- Can he ditch near the destroyers?" "- Negative." "- Is his wingman still with him?" "- Affirmative."—James A. Michener, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, 1953 It should be further noted that affirmative and negative can be used with answer in sentences where simple replacement with yes or no is not desirable: • ... a question that can't be answered in the affirmative—for if it could, there would be no need to ask it —Jon Landau, Rolling Stone, 2 Mar. 1972 A final note: usage writers are apt to disparage usages like this as modern barbarisms. But this expression was around long before the courtroom reportage rejected by Copperud, Flesch, and Watt developed: • ... I met an old woman in the street, who accosting me, asked, if I were a physician. When I answered in the affirmative ... —Tobias Smollett, translation of René Le Sage, Gil Blas, 1749 |
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