A negative deviation means that the observation is smaller than whatever it is that the deviation is being measured from.
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mean deviation =(4/5)quartile deviation
Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of the data. When the standard deviation is greater than the mean, a coefficient of variation is greater than one. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_variation If you assume the data is normally distributed, then the lower limit of the interval of the mean +/- one standard deviation (68% confidence interval) will be a negative value. If it is not realistic to have negative values, then the assumption of a normal distribution may be in error and you should consider other distributions. Common distributions with no negative values are gamma, log normal and exponential.
No. Standard deviation is the square root of a non-negative number (the variance) and as such has to be at least zero. Please see the related links for a definition of standard deviation and some examples.
The mean deviation from the median is equal to the mean minus the median.
No. The average of the deviations, or mean deviation, will always be zero. The standard deviation is the average squared deviation which is usually non-zero.