Expletive negation:Lexically motivated or pragmatically motivated?
Based on Li(2023),this paper further explores the motivations of exple-tive negation.Certainly,there exist cases of expletive negation triggered fully by the cov-ertly negative meaning of the main verb.However,expletive negation of this kind is most-ly lapsus linguae resulted from the fact that the main verb can induce only -p(p repre-senting the proposition stated by the complement clause).The contradiction between p and -p is the crucial factor for expletive negation.The lexical meaning of the main verb is generally a necessary condition for expletive negation;otherwise -p cannot be triggered,let alone the contradiction between p and -p.It is argued that the contradiction between p and -p is created in a majority of cases by pragmatic factors,and that pragmatically in-duced contradiction between p and -p is the most critical for the occurrence of expletive negation.In addition,syntax can play a role of adjustment,turning expletive negation into canonical negation.
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