The notion of negation can be considered from several aspects. In this case, three types of negation will be considered, of which two have an explicitly linguistic character. The first relates to the negation of expression. It is about the morphological and semantic conditionality of the connection of ‘NO’ with various expression, i.e. the thematic foundations of expressions. The participation of ‘NO’ is often expressed in relation to backformation processes – this manner of study of negation gives scarce information on its function in the text. However, placing morphological indicators of negation on a syntactic plain, also facilitates the explanation of negation function in text structure and the discourse from a methodological aspect. Sentence negation is the second aspect.

In addition to the involvement of negation constructions on a grammatical (syntactic) plain, attention should be paid to another, third sphere, to negation operations and to their indicators in the text. The functioning of negation in a literary text, and the problems related to illocution are in question here, and especially, the metaillocutory forces of speech, which act with negation in a literary text. This problem will be considered in the text of the children's tale, Sugar Story by Slavko Janevski.

The iIllocutive character of literary works has been discussed many times, however, it is obvious that not all types of literary acts use illocution with the same degree and not all of them are endowed with the power of illocution. Illocutive acts of speech are particularly often used in certain types of magical stories intended for children. These kind of works and special genres, enriched with fantasy, possess magical formulae such as: magical words, curses, spells, messages, forbiddances, orders etc., which if passed on, can harm (or help) the protagonist first of all, but in certain circumstances, supporting characters are not spared and can also fall under their influence. The delivering of magical formulae, for example, ‘Open Sesame’ (Sezamie, otwórz się) or ‘Биди, арараио, камен, не-кјумур, не-мраз!’ cause, thanks to the language magic, events that decisively or crucially change the further course of action.