Metalinguistic negation in Mandarin
汉语中诠释语言运用的否定用法
Yung-o Biq 毕永峨

Abstract 摘要
The negation marker mei in Mandarin can give rise to two opposite readings when it is used with chadianr ‘almost’. The other negation marker bu creates similar ambiguity when it is preceded by intensifier hao and followed by a stative verb. By differentiating the metalinguistic function of negation markers from their descriptive, truth-functional capacity, this paper resolves the ambiguity in those two cases in terms of semantic/pragmatic notions such as conversational implicature, the entailment relation between scalarly evaluated predicates, and the Gricean Maxim of Quantity. The metalinguistic uses all point to an evaluative/expressive marking of the speaker’s involved attitude towards the referent state/event.

汉语中的否定词‘没’与‘差一点’并用时会产生两种相反的意义。另一否定词‘不’在‘好不+静态动词’的组合里也会造成跟‘差一点没’相类似的相反歧义。本文把否定词的决定真假值的功能和他们诠释语言运用的功能加以分别。上述两例中的歧义则用语义学及语用学中的观念，诸如会话暗示，逻辑暗示关系，以及葛氏（Gricean）会话分量定律来解释。这些诠释语言运用的功能都是用以加强说话者的语气，表明他对所指事物的关切态度。

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