ABSTRACT
Negation and interrogation of the polar kind have something in common. In both of them, though in different ways, polarity is made prominent; negation explicitly says no and interrogation asks whether or not. The polarity has no special prominence. The expected polarity of a statement is positive; ordinarily one does not say that something is not the case unless there is reason to believe that somebody might think otherwise. It is nevertheless possible for a positive declarative to be used in explicit contrast to a negative. The way of expressing the meaning in English is to give the finite auxiliary a special rhythmical prominence. When the verbal group has no auxiliary for other purpose, 'do' must be supplied to act as salient syllable. The verbal groups must have an auxiliary in which the polarity is a special significant point. Polar emphasis is realized not necessarily by inserting an auxiliary verb but by rising into rhythmical prominence.
