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But and Negation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Ana von Klopp
Ana von Klopp
Affiliation:
Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, Scotland. Email A.von.Klopp@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract

Many languages (e.g. Spanish, German, and Swedish) have more than one morpheme corresponding to the English “but”. It has been argued by Anscombre & Ducrot (1977) and by Horn (1989) that two of these morphemes covary with two different functions of natural language negation. Anscombre's and Ducrot's descriptions of these BUTs are examined, and it is shown that there is no such link. There is, however, an interesting connection between “but” and negation. One of the two morphemes imposes a restriction on the use of negation in the clause that follows it, which suggests that natural language negation does not correspond to a truth function.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , June 1994 , pp. 1 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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