Negation

Abstract

This paper deals with some general issues regarding the interpretation of negation, including the relation between negation and presupposition and its relation with scalar implicature. As Horn (1989) documents in humbling detail, thinking about these matters goes back many centuries and has taken many different twists and turns. Needless to say, I cannot even attempt to do justice to the history of the study of negation here. My more limited goal is to present some basic questions regarding the semantics of negation and address how they relate to (i) the status of presuppositions, (ii) where and how scalar implicatures are derived and (iii) whether scalar implicature can be exploited to explain why certain expressions (Negative Polarity Items) are only licit in negative contexts. (On the topic of Negative Polarity Items see article 64 (Giannakidou) Polarity items.).