Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T16:08:06.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Presupposition-cancellation and metalinguistic negation: a reply to Carston

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1999

NOEL BURTON-ROBERTS
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Linguistics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Abstract

This is a response to Carston's critique of my account of presupposition-cancellation. While accepting her demonstration that (contra ‘On Horn's dilemma’) presupposition-cancellation does not involve a linguistically encoded contradiction, I show that this is nevertheless consistent with the account of presupposition proposed in Burton-Roberts 1993/7. In fact, Carston's and my accounts of presupposition-cancellation both treat it as involving a pragmatically derived contradiction. I also reconsider the nature of so-called ‘metalinguistic negation’, arguing against Carston that there is a special use of negation (!MN) which involves a use-mention mix and a pragmatically derived contradiction, and is non-truth-functional. I show that, although !MN is echoic, not all echoic negations are examples of !MN.

Type
NOTES AND DISCUSSION
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)