Sentence Function - Declarative Vs. Affirmative Vs. Positive

Declarative Vs. Affirmative Vs. Positive

A declarative statement should not be deemed synonymous with an affirmative one. This is because although a declarative statement can state facts (given that the speaker is not consciously lying), it can also express something which is not true. The information he or she is providing, regardless of whether it be true or not in reality, is in fact true or false to that speaker. Therefore, a declarative can be either in the affirmative or in the negative, and we can say that, Joanna is late and Joanna is not late, both technically qualify as declarative sentences. Declarative refers to a sentence's function or purpose, while affirmative and negative deal with a sentence's veracity, or grammatical polarity, which is why the different terms can overlap simultaneously.

Though not as erroneous as the above misnomer, there is a clouding that can occur between the slight distinction of the affirmative, and the positive. Although it semantically speaking comes natural that positive is the opposite of negative, and therefore should be completely synonymous with affirmative, grammatically speaking, once again they tend to be separate entities; depending on specificity. Positive in linguistic terms refers to the degree of the quality of an adjective or adverb (along with the comparative and superlative), while affirmative refers to the perceived validity of the entire sentence.

Thus, all three terms being separate entities, an adjective or adverb can be in the positive degree but expressed in the negative, so that the sentence, This hummer does not seem to be eco-friendly, has all negative, positive, and declarative properties.

In fact, an exclamatory, imperative, as well as a question can be in the negative form: I can't do this!, Don't touch me, Don't you want to?