According to Roger Brown's (1973) Stage I sentence types, which of these is classified under "Operations of Reference"?

• A. A negation
• B. A question
• C. A statement
• D. An imperative

Answer: (A)

In Brown’s Stage I, utterances are categorized by how a child uses language to refer to the world around them. Operations of Reference are the basic functions that relate to identifying or referencing objects and their status. A negation is the clearest example of this because it directly adjusts the reference to a referent by denying or signaling that something is not the case. It shows the child actively manipulating how a referent is understood in the discourse.

The other forms—asking a question, making a statement, or issuing an imperative—serve different communicative purposes: requesting information, asserting something about the world, or giving a command. Those functions belong to other categories in Brown’s framework and aren’t considered part of the fundamental Operations of Reference in Stage I.