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Literary notes about negative (AI summary)

The term “negative” is employed in literature with a remarkably diverse semantic range, serving both as a descriptor of absence or denial and as a marker of methodical or philosophical distinction. In some works, it functions as a literal mathematical or logical qualifier—for instance, the digital root rule in triangular numbers [1] or as a technical notation in grammar and syntax [2]. In narrative and dialogue, “negative” often appears in concise refusals or denials, such as characters responding "in the negative" to questions or directives [3, 4, 5, 6]. Beyond these straightforward uses, authors expand its meaning to encapsulate complete states devoid of certain qualities (for example, a life “without pain, indigence, or distress” described as negative [7]) or to contrast with positive evidence in argumentation [8]. Thus, literature leverages “negative” not only to denote absence or negation but also to enrich philosophical debates and descriptive characterizations across genres.
  1. So here we have a similar negative check, for a number cannot be triangular (that is, (n²+n)/2) if its digital root be 2, 4, 5, 7, or 8.
    — from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney
  2. THE NEGATIVE ADVERB OF PLACE.
    — from A Complete Grammar of Esperanto by Ivy Kellerman Reed
  3. I smile and answer in the negative, stating that I cannot let her go till the storm is over.
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  4. He answered, you remember, in the negative.
    — from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
  5. He then inquired whether I lodged in the house; and was answered in the negative.
    — from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  6. She seemed somewhat cheered when I answered in the negative.
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  7. The lucky or contented man, as such , leaves us indifferent—in reality because his state is negative; he is without pain, indigence, or distress.
    — from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer
  8. For, in this case, negative evidence is worth little, while any positive evidence is conclusive.
    — from The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill

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