EAN: 9783110219296

THE EXPRESSION OF NEGATION THE EXPRESSION OF ...

Negation is a sine qua non of every human language but is absent from otherwise complex systems
of animal communication. In many ways  it is negation that makes us human  imbuing us with the
capacity to deny  to contradict  to misrepresent  to lie  and to convey irony. The apparent
simplicity of logical negation as a one-place operator that toggles truth and falsity belies
the intricate complexity of the expression of negation in natural language. Not only do we find
negative adverbs  verbs  copulas  quantifiers  and affixes  but the interaction of negation
with other operators (including multiple iterations of negation itself) can be exceedingly
complex to describe  extending (as first detailed by Otto Jespersen) to negative concord 
negative incorporation  and the widespread occurrence of negative polarity items whose
distribution is subject to principles of syntax  semantics  and pragmatics. The chapters in
this book survey the patterning of negative utterances in natural languages  spanning such
foundational issues as how negative sentences are realized cross-linguistically and how that
realization tends to change over time  how negation is acquired by children  how it is
processed by adults  and how its expression changes over time. Specific chapters offer focused
empirical studies of negative polarity  pleonastic negation  and negative quantifier scope
interaction  as well as detailed examinations of the form and function of sentential negation
in modern Romance languages and Classical Japanese.

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