Negation : implications for theories of natural language
Natural language negation has been the object of numerous studies, but still no satisfactory description has yet been given. Current theories tend to be based on the negation in predicate logic, which they extend or extrapolate to increase the coverage. However, they incur a number of empirical inadequacies, and for some uses of negation, such as in yes/no-questions, it is difficult to envisage how a truth functional description could be modified to accommodate them. This thesis claims that the failure of previous theories stems from their reliance on the common assumption that sentences refer to facts, which is linked to a view of human communication as being a matter of transferring knowledge in the form of propositions from one person to another. As a result of assuming that uttering a sentence is equivalent to making a reference to a fact, it has been thought that uttering a sentence with a negation amounts to a claim that the information of the corresponding affirmative sentence is wrong. Negation has been viewed as applying to information which is conveyed by sentence. An alternative to the hypothesis that sentences are used to refer to facts is to assume that they are used to make small changes in someone's
Von Klopp, Ana
Negation : implications for theories of natural language. Natural language negation has been the object of numerous studies, but still no satisfactory description has yet been given. Current theories tend to be based on the negation in predicate logic, which they extend or extrapolate to increase the coverage. However, they incur a number of empirical inadequacies, and for some uses of negation, such as in yes/no-questions, it is difficult to envisage how a truth functional description could be modified to accommodate them. This thesis claims that the failure of previous theories stems from their reliance on the common assumption that sentences refer to facts, which is linked to a view of human communication as being a matter of transferring knowledge in the form of propositions from one person to another. As a result of assuming that uttering a sentence is equivalent to making a reference to a fact, it has been thought that uttering a sentence with a negation amounts to a claim that the information of the corresponding affirmative sentence is wrong. Negation has been viewed as applying to information which is conveyed by sentence. An alternative to the hypothesis that sentences are used to refer to facts is to assume that they are used to make small changes in someone's
negation implication theory natural_language natural_language negation object numerous study still satisfactory description yet give current_theory tend base negation predicate logic extend extrapolate increase coverage however incur number empirical inadequacy use negation yes questions difficult envisage truth functional description could modify accommodate them claim failure previous theory stem reliance common_assumption sentence refer fact link view human_communication matter transfer knowledge form proposition person another assume sentence equivalent make reference fact think sentence negation amount claim information correspond affirmative sentence wrong negation view apply information convey sentence alternative hypothesis sentence use refer fact assume use make small change someone