Metalinguistic negation and truth functions

Abstract

Metalinguistic negation (MN) is a specialized use of the negative operator where it functions as a device for registering an objection to a preceding utterance on any grounds other than its truth-conditional content. In this paper, I describe how MN is used in Egyptian Arabic, where it can be expressed differently from descriptive negation. Moreover, I discuss its language specific properties such as the use of an overt complementizer in a matrix clause, and propose two diagnostics for MN in this language: (a) it licenses double negation, an otherwise ungrammatical structure, and (b) it cannot be used emphatically. Negation in Egyptian Arabic is ambiguous only if the speaker suppresses the formal properties of MN to strengthen the double processing effect, so as to achieve certain communicative goals such as humor, surprise, and irony. Although there are two ways of expressing negation in Egyptian Arabic, I argue that there is only one negative operator, and that the different ways of expressing negation are a result of the grammaticalization of pragmatic functions. The facts about negation in Egyptian Arabic strongly support Horn's account of MN as non truth-functional, as the negated clause can be conjoined to its rectification without triggering a truth-functional, therefore contradictory, interpretation.