Double Negation Research Articles

Adjusting Mood in Mandarin Chinese: A Game Theory Approach to Double and Redundant Negation with Entropy

Abstract This study investigates how Mandarin Chinese speakers use double and redundant negations to adjust information entropy and convey the speaker’s mood. Integrating Gricean implicature, signaling game theory, and information entropy, we quantified uncertainty in negation sentences by calculating self-information of negation markers and overall entropy for negations versus affirmatives. Analyzing sentences from the BCC Corpus of Mandarin Chinese newspapers, we extracted double and redundant negation patterns, calculated their frequencies, and compared entropy values in payoff matrices against affirmatives. Contextual analysis of surrounding discourse interpreted pragmatic functions. Our findings reveal that universal double negations reduce sentence entropy, intensifying assertiveness. Modal forms further decrease entropy, amplifying necessity, while conditional patterns strengthen the asserted conditions. Euphemistic double negations increase entropy, weaken assertiveness, and align with Levinson’s Manner Principle. This increase in entropy quantifies pragmatic markedness, allowing tentative critiques. Redundant negations significantly reduce entropy, strengthening negative attitudes. We elucidate how interlocutors navigate cooperative discourse by quantifying uncertainty via entropy measures, making contextually-optimal linguistic choices like assertion, indirectness, and emphasis. These findings impact signaling game theory and pragmatic markedness, with applications in natural language processing, cross-cultural communication, and computational models. Future research could explore other languages and cognitive and social factors in negation use.

Linguistic Variability across Four Generations of Basque Spanish Speakers

Abstract The present study uses the apparent-time construct to analyze cross-generational variability of the preverbal double negation construction (i.e., yo tampoco no voy a la fiesta ‘I’m not going to the party either’), traditionally cited as a regional characteristic of the Spanish spoken in the Basque Country. An acceptability judgment task and a semi-structured interview were carried out among four different age groups. The results show that speakers of the two older generations tend to accept and produce the regional construction significantly more than speakers of the two younger generations, who favor the Standard Spanish variant (yo tampoco voy a la fiesta ‘I’m not going to the party either’). It is suggested that this trend is mainly due to the participants’ different language contact situations (Thomason and Kaufman, 1988) and levels of formal education. Since older speakers grew up in a situation of shift via interference and with lower levels of formal education, they prefer the preverbal double negation construction, which was already a norm in the regional Spanish. However, younger speakers grew up in a language maintenance situation and have relatively high formal education levels, factors that have conditioned dialectal leveling in this case.

Reifying dynamical algebra: Maximal ideals in countable rings, constructively

The existence of a maximal ideal in a general nontrivial commutative ring is tied together with the axiom of choice. Following Berardi, Valentini and thus Krivine but using the relative interpretation of negation (that is, as “implies 0 = 1”) we show, in constructive set theory with minimal logic, how for countable rings one can do without any kind of choice and without the usual decidability assumption that the ring is strongly discrete (membership in finitely generated ideals is decidable). By a functional recursive definition we obtain a maximal ideal in the sense that the quotient ring is a residue field (every noninvertible element is zero), and with strong discreteness even a geometric field (every element is either invertible or else zero). Krull’s lemma for the related notion of prime ideal follows by passing to rings of fractions. By employing a construction variant of set-theoretic forcing due to Joyal and Tierney, we expand our treatment to arbitrary rings and establish a connection with dynamical algebra: We recover the dynamical approach to maximal ideals as a parametrized version of the celebrated double negation translation. This connection allows us to give formal a priori criteria elucidating the scope of the dynamical method. Along the way we do a case study for proofs in algebra with minimal logic, and generalize the construction to arbitrary inconsistency predicates. A partial Agda formalization is available at an accompanying repository.11 See https://github.com/iblech/constructive-maximal-ideals/. This text is a revised and extended version of the conference paper (In Revolutions and Revelations in Computability. 18th Conference on Computability in Europe (2022) Springer). The conference paper only briefly sketched the connection with dynamical algebra; did not compare this connection with other flavors of set-theoretic forcing; and sticked to the case of commutative algebra only, passing on the generalization to inconsistency predicates and well-orders.

A Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Czech Version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire: The Content Validity Part.

The Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) is a widely used parent questionnaire for screening motor coordination disorders in children aged 5-15 years. Despite increasing motor difficulties in children, a validated version is lacking in Central Europe. In addition, previous studies pointed out that several DCDQ items were shown to be problematic in different cultural environments. We found that the majority of these studies did not assess the item's content validity approach for keeping the semantic form and linguistic intelligibility of the original items. Therefore, this study aimed to translate the DCDQ, determine the content validity of items, and adapt the DCDQ for Czech children aged 6-10 years, where the identification of motor difficulties is crucial. Back-translation was employed, and face validity was consulted with linguistic experts and occupational therapists. A sample of 25 bilingual parents and practitioners evaluated the translated version, with content validity assessed using the Content Validity Ratio coefficient (CVR). Initial CVR scores ranged from 0.6 to 1.0. Lower scores were found for items 14 and 15, which were shown to be problematic in previous studies. The reason for the lower content validity in these items was due to double negation. Following linguistic modifications, the CVR values improved (range: 0.87-1.0), indicating content and semantic stability. Our findings underscore the importance of considering content validity and language specificity, including issues like double negation, during cross-cultural questionnaire validation to mitigate potential psychometric concerns in the future. The adapted Czech version exhibits significant content validity, thereby warranting further validation of its psychometric properties.

“The Right Despair”: Kafka’s Nihilist Technique

Kafka’s drawing style, like his writing one, is abstemious in the extreme; the question is how to characterize his criterion of subtraction. Studying the diary drawings alongside the text in which they are embedded points toward a general dynamic of deactivation—an aesthetics of disillusion in the baroque tradition of desengaño—that can be seen more clearly than read. Kafka repeatedly draws and writes about thresholds. But while his diary writing tends to thematize a perceived failure to pass from one side to another, the accompanying drawings systematically eliminate this register, and with it, all sense of directional movement or striving. The drawings operate as emblems of a passage, and so also of metapherein, in all its most iconic shapes—ladders, gates, permeable walls—but of a passage suspended at the very apex of its arc, where failure is impossible to distinguish from success. The nihilistic thrust of an aestheticized despair is here in turn negated, and the result, like Wittgenstein’s duck rabbit example, is in principle ambiguous. The essay argues that such structural ambiguity becomes a crucial feature of the literary works, which are constructed, as the diary entries themselves usually are not, in accordance with a similarly emblematic technique of double negation or “right despair.”

Characterizations of some (weak) Grothendieck topologies

Let [Formula: see text] be a small well-powered category which has pullbacks. The aim of this paper is to study and characterize two (weak) topologies on presheaf category [Formula: see text], one of these is constructed by means of a subfunctor of the Yoneda functor which corresponds to an ideal of [Formula: see text], called (weak) ideal topology, and another constructed by a dominion. Naturally, these (weak) topologies of [Formula: see text] introduce two (weak) Grothendieck topologies on [Formula: see text]. To find and study their relations, using the induced presheaf [Formula: see text] given by the fixed dominion [Formula: see text] on [Formula: see text] we construct an action of [Formula: see text] on the subobject classifier [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text]. Then, we investigate which one of (weak) Grothendieck topologies corresponds one-to-one to the ideals of [Formula: see text] and which one is a sub [Formula: see text]-set of [Formula: see text]. Moreover, among other things, we give some conditions under which the Grothendieck topologies on [Formula: see text] associated to the double negation topology [Formula: see text] and two topologies [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] (mentioned above) are sub [Formula: see text]-sets of [Formula: see text].

The comprehension of double negation in Chinese children with reading difficulties

ABSTRACT This study investigated the processing of double negation in Chinese children with reading difficulties. The comprehension of Mandarin affirmative, single negative and double negative sentences was tested with Chinese young poor readers and typical readers, using a sentence-picture verification task. Results showed that double negative sentences were most difficult to process for both groups; the poor readers performed significantly worse than the typical readers in comprehending double negative sentences, while no difference between the two groups was observed in comprehending affirmative and single negative sentences. Besides, morphological awareness correlated with the comprehension of double negative and single negative sentences in poor readers, while this correlation did not emerge with typical readers. Overall, our results suggest that children with reading difficulties experienced great processing difficulty in double negation, confirming that reading disorders are also characterised by oral language difficulties, in particular in the comprehension of sentences requiring high processing costs.

Impact of Double Negation through Majority Voting of Machine Learning Algorithms

Impact of Double Negation through Majority Voting of Machine Learning Algorithms

Эксплицитные и имплицитные маркеры конфликтного речевого поведения в интернет-опосредованной коммуникации периода пандемии COVID-19

Introduction. The Internet leaves a significant imprint on the features of the construction and means of implementing conflict communication. The calculation of these tools allows us to differentiate communicative conflicts on the Internet with a sufficient degree of clarity and suppress them.
 Aim. Identification and comprehensive study of the conflict speech behavior in the process of exchanging comments on posts in the LiveJournal for the period from January 2020 to December 2022.
 Methodology and research methods. A continuous sampling method is used to select study material, a method of complex communicative-pragmatic analysis provides the assessment of comments as conflicting, linguostylistic analysis and contextual analysis contribute to detect the explicit and implicit markers of conflict interaction.
 Results. Detected explicit markers: profanity, zoometaphores, negative facial nomination from the point of view of origin, mental development, health status, level of education, from the point of view of the interests of society, occasionalism of the pandemic period, naming of the interlocutor as representatives of hostile ideology, emotive verbs with negative meaning, neutral device nominations when referring to the interlocutor, lexical means with threat, isolation, vaccinating semantics. Detected implicit markers: means that contribute to the construction of a dichotomy "own - alien", phraseologisms with negative connotations, an abundance of punctuation marks, Internet memes for the transmission of emotions, typeface, parcellated constructions, English-language interspersions, erratives, multiple questions, incomplete sentences, parallel constructions, repetitions, imperatives, subjunctive mood in an incentive meaning, modal words with the semantics of dignity. Means-enhancers of conflict interaction: adversative conjunctions, hyperbolization, phonetic pun, indefinite pronouns, double negation, adverbs-intensifiers, amplifying-excretory particles.
 Scientific novelty. A wide range of verbal and non-verbal means that show conflict explicitly and implicitly has been identified.
 Practical significance. We believe that the achieved results will ensure the regulation of the increase in conflict situations on the Internet.

On the Conditions for the Introducing Distance Learning in Russian Universities

Modern computer and Internet technologies make it possible not only to transfer educational materials to digital media, but also to implement in a remote format various teaching methods, diagnostics, individualization of educational interests and trajectories, and much more. In addition, modern technologies in this area allow us to do what was simply impossible within the framework of the conventional education system. But the issue of a reasonable measure of the use of these technologies and the adequate setting and implementation of tasks in this direction requires special work. The article presents the results of this kind of work carried out on the basis of a program-project approach. Although the work was carried out within the framework of the assignment of the FEMU to classical universities for mathematical education, the specifics of universities and mathematical education were not significant. The assignment was to determine the readiness of the mathematical faculties of universities for the systematic use of distance learning through an expert survey of FEMU members. The relevance of the question of the timeliness of the introducing distance learning in a particular situation, on the one hand, and the problematic nature of this issue, due to the lack of proper systemic, logical grounds for its solution, prompted the author to apply his own method, which is conceptually different from the numerous surveys and “experiences” available in literature. The application of this method (“double inversion of position” or, in other words, “double negation”: intent – objections – withdrawal of objections), made it possible to formulate three principal lists. The first contains an explicitly formulated framework in which the introducing distance learning makes sense; the second and third represent the research and development program necessary for the implementation of distance learning. And already on the basis of the first list, related to the current situation, a survey of experts was conducted, which made it possible to formulate the main conclusions on the problem under discussion. The results obtained fix a logical necessity that does not depend on private opinions or specific features of the situation.

Double Negation as Minimal Negation

N. Kamide introduced a pair of classical and constructive logics, each with a peculiar type of negation: its double negation behaves as classical and intuitionistic negation, respectively. A consequence of this is that the systems prove contradictions but are non-trivial. The present paper aims at giving insights into this phenomenon by investigating subsystems of Kamide’s logics, with a focus on a system in which the double negation behaves as the negation of minimal logic. We establish the negation inconsistency of the system and embeddability of contradictions from other systems. In addition, we attempt at an informational interpretation of the negation using the dimathematical framework of H. Wansing.

Pathologies in satisfaction classes

We study subsets of countable recursively saturated models of PA which can be defined using pathologies in satisfaction classes. More precisely, we characterize those subsets X such that there is a satisfaction class S where S behaves correctly on an idempotent disjunction of length c if and only if c∈X. We generalize this result to characterize several types of pathologies including double negations, blocks of extraneous quantifiers, and binary disjunctions and conjunctions. We find a surprising relationship between the cuts which can be defined in this way and arithmetic saturation: namely, a countable nonstandard model is arithmetically saturated if and only if every cut can be the “idempotent disjunctively correct cut” in some satisfaction class. We describe the relationship between types of pathologies and the closure properties of the cuts defined by these pathologies.

Disputes and Doctrines of the Threefold Middle Way in the Early Sanlun School

This paper examines the development of the Sanlun School’s Threefold Middle Way doctrine, focusing on the contributions of Sengquan and Falang. Often seen as pillars of Sanlun thought preceding Jizang, their teachings remain under-explored in scholarship. This study combines a close reading of their philosophical texts with historical context to generate an in-depth understanding of how the Threefold Middle Way evolved over generations. Sengquan introduced a complex double negation to amplify the transcendental quality of his theory, contrasting with the simpler “neither A nor B” negation of Chengshi masters. Falang, building on this, solidified his interpretation of the middle way and provisional names amidst disputes with contemporary masters. He formulated Three Types of Utterance; the First is directly inherited from Sengquan, while the Second and Third represent the two axes of his two truths theory: gradual abandonment and equality. Falang’s critical response to his fellow masters, particularly his removal of provisional names, heightens the transcendental quality of his theories. A thorough understanding of Sengquan and Falang’s doctrines provides an informed basis to assess the true scope of Jizang’s contributions to Sanlun thought.

Why Must Incompatibility Be Symmetric?

Abstract Why must incompatibility be symmetric? An odd question, but recent work in the semantics of non-classical logic, which appeals to the notion of incompatibility as a primitive and defines negation in terms of it, has brought this question to the fore. Francesco Berto proposes such a semantics for negation argues that, since incompatibility must be symmetric, double negation introduction must be a law of negation. However, he offers no argument for the claim that incompatibility really must be symmetric. Here, I provide such an argument, showing that, insofar as we think of incompatibility in normative pragmatic terms, it can play its basic pragmatic function only if it is symmetric. The upshot is that we can vindicate Berto’s claim about the symmetry of incompatibility but only if we, pace Berto, think about incompatibility, in the first instance, as a pragmatic relation between acts rather than a semantic relation between contents.

DOUBLE NEGATION IN ENGLISH. REASONS FOR USE BY THE SPEAKER, PERCEPTION BY THE LISTENER, WAYS OF ENHANCING COMMUNICATION

The research aims at outlining the category of double negation in English and reinterpretation of classical understanding of this construction. The article outlines possible benefits from using the given construction and possible problems, which it may create in communication. The authors combine pragmatical and psycholinguistic approaches to the given grammatical construction, the examples of the reasons are given, which may have contributed to the usage of the given construction and the reasons of misunderstandings because of the loss of meaning in the process of communication. The analysis of the given construction from the point of view of the speaker and the listener gives the opportunity to understand the logic behind it and predisposition of English towards double negation as well as the artificial influence of Lantin over the process of disappearance of the unique construction in English Grammar. In Future it may be the basis to prove the standardness of this construction.

Dialect and colloquial elements in English fiction

The article deals with the study of dialect and colloquial elements in English fiction. The main aim of the study is to identify, analyze and characterize the significance of dialect and colloquial elements in modern fiction. The author studies the following terms “dialect”, “dialect words”, “colloquial words”. In the article dialect-colloquial elements are defined as speech units that characterize a certain dialect and are accompanied by some colloquial elements. The examples of dialect-colloquial elements are taken from the following works: “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911), “When Marnie Was There” by Joan G. Robinson (1967), “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J. K. Rowling (1999). The analysis of the works demonstrates that the functioning of dialect-colloquial elements is observed at different language levels: phonetic, grammatical and lexical. Reduction of sounds, devoicing or voicing of sounds, incorrect reading of the ending ‘ing’ are used at the phonetic level. The lexical level is characterized by the usage of obsolete forms of parts of speech and colloquial words. On the grammatical level a violation of the traditional grammar norms (no ending in the plural, the use of double negation, etc.) is found. The research proves that dialect-colloquial elements help to depict the characters vividly, convey the individuality of their speech, and sometimes serve as a means of satire.

Les sexuations, le féminin et la logique intuitionniste

ObjectivesWe propose a logical reflection on the feminine. In the Freudian corpus, this enigma finds various answers in which feminine desire can be interpreted from the phallic register's side. But, as a letter written to Marie Bonaparte testifies, Sigmund Freud belatedly concedes that he neglected a grey area of feminine desire, which caused him to fail to understand what women want. He calls this lack the dark continent. In this respect, Jacques Lacan took this reflexion a step further and, while considering the phallic dimension, he proposed additional theoretical elaborations such as the formulas of sexuation, which allowed him to theoretically extend Freudian ideas. MethodIn the Encore seminar, Lacan proposes the table of sexuation as an attempt to formalize the question of the difference of the sexes. This difference is questioned here at a symbolic level and through a logical approach. Lacan's formulas of sexuation thus overturn a simplistic and anatomical conception of sexual difference, by subverting a binary logic of the excluded third. In this way, these formulas meet the intuitionistic logic suggested by Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer. Thus, based on a review of the Lacanian and Brouwerian literature, we question the interest of relying on intuitionism to apprehend the logic that operates on the feminine side of the formulas of sexuation. ResultsAt the beginning of the 20th century, Brouwer, a Dutch mathematician, initiated his work on intuitionist logic. In 1908, in “That Logical Principles Cannot be Trusted,” Brouwer partially rejected the classical axiom of the excluded third, thereby opposing the Aristotelian foundations of logic. He refused to extend the logic of the excluded third to the treatment of infinite sets, for which, according to him, no a priori can be postulated. A double logical treatment is suggested in intuitionism: the infinite is treated logically differently than the finite, and this double treatment allows us to apprehend certain specificities of the feminine position. Lacan specifies that for feminine subjects, an undecidable relation is at work between the not-all formula and a double negation ¬∃x.¬Φx. DiscussionThe logical double treatment of intuitionism seems to illustrate the discordant logic of the not-all. The not-all subject is in a discordant relation between the phallic function Φx and S (Ⱥ). The formula S (Ⱥ) expresses a certain relation to the lack in the Other that we associate with a castration carried out on the Other. Similarly, the different interpretations (algorithmic, semantic) that have been made of intuitionism also seem to point in the direction of a discordance in this logic. We are interested in the importance of the interpretation of the Real and its consequences on the way we consider the different Lacanian dimensions (Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary). Indeed, from a psychoanalytical point of view, the sustained interpretation seems to have consequences on the way one can conceive the articulation between the dimensions and the jouissances. This reflection also allows us to question the impact of considering the temporal dimension within an interpretation. ConclusionsBased upon the formulas of sexuation, we propose a reflection on the interest of intuitionist logic for approaching the logic of the feminine position. This position reflects a logic other than that of the excluded third in its relationship to castration. On the feminine side, Lacan puts forward an undecidable relation to castration, which leads us to question the meaning he gives to this term. In order to understand it, we have drawn on the two definitions of Verleugnung proposed by Freud, in which this negation corresponds either to the way of denying the difference between the sexes in the perverse structure, or to a singular negation of the neurosis that can be associated with the end of the cure. In both cases, the logic of these negations diverges from that of the excluded third, because in perversion, it relates to an affirmation of castration that is secondarily denied (yes but no) and in the case of the end of the cure, it is rather a concomitant consideration between affirmation and negation of symbolic castration (yes and no).

Pas de Problème: The Distribution and Nature of Double Negation in French and Other Romance Negative Concord Languages

Most Romance negative concord (NC) languages in particular configurations give rise to double negation (DN) readings. In this article, I discuss an intricate DN pattern in French. After discussing some previous accounts, I provide an analysis of French pas (and in its slipstream also of the French expletive negative element ne) that takes pas to be a purely semantically but not formally (i.e., syntactically) negative element. I then argue that the reason why French pas is so different from other negative markers lies in its diachrony and show that other attested asymmetries between the formal properties of negative markers and neg-words in Romance must receive a diachronic explanation as well.

The Buddhist Pramāṇa-Epistemology, Logic, and Language: with Reference to Vasubandhu, Dignāga, and Dharmakīrti

Abstract As the title of the present article shows, it highlights the three philosophically integrated areas – (1) pramāṇa-epistemology (theory of comprehensive knowledge involving both perception and inference), (2) logic (although a part of pramāṇa-epistemology, it has two modes, namely, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning), and (3) language (or semantics, i.e. the double negation theory of meaning, which falls under inference). These are interconnected as well as overlapping within the Buddhist mainstream tradition of the process philosophy as opposed to the substantialist philosophy. The same is the case with the three celebrated Buddhist thinkers – Vasubandhu, Dignāga (also spelt as Diññāṇa), and Dharmakīrti – who develop their radical and critical views focusing on these areas in historical-cum-philosophical order. It is worth noting that within the same mainstream Buddhist tradition, each one of the three thinkers picks up the problematic issues from their predecessors – from the Buddha to their immediate predecessors respectively – for their solutions against the backdrop of the two conflicting mainstream traditions – Buddhist and non-Buddhist. The central focus of these thinkers is first to identify the crucial issues, doctrinal principles, terminology, and methodology in their own ways and conceptual frameworks, which generate not only the mutual conflicts in the course of dialogues but also strengthen their positions by means of their new radical ideas, innovations, terminologies, methodologies, and doctrinal principles. As a result, the three selected areas and their crucial issues are explained, elaborated, and interpretated for better understanding. All of which are rooted in the Buddha’s path of wisdom, ethics, and liberation from the human predicament (duḥkha-nivṛtti). In this grand project of the deepest concerns, the Buddha utilized multiple strategies like understanding and controlling the problematic nature of the mind (Pāli citta, manasa) and its concomitance (Pāli cetasika, dhammā) by means of the concentrative meditation (Pāli jhāna, Sanskrit (hereafter Skt., dhyāna), cultivation of knowledge (Pāli vijjā, Skt. vidyā) and conduct/moral purity (Pāli caraṇa, Skt. ācaraṇa), destruction of afflictions/defilements (Pāli kilesa, Skt. kleśa), critical and logical thinking with valid arguments, and so on. His disciples also treat him as the possessor of valid method, arguments, meaning, practice, and purpose (Skt. pramāṇabhūta, the term used by Dignāga). He believed in the common humanity as the community of sufferers and the autonomy of every human being (Pāli attakāra), but strongly rejected the hierarchy of humanity on the basis of caste, birth, and dogmatic religious identity. For these reasons, following the Buddha and his celebrated followers like Vasubandhu, Dignāga, and Dharmakīrti, my task in this article is how to clearly and elaborately discuss the above identified issues and theories, first to understand them for myself and then logically prove the whole process of knowledge and the designed purpose through communication to those who have the intention to hear and understand the framework of common language for their benefits. I wish the readers like students and young teachers benefit from my research work. Further, since my learning of the Tibetan language is zero, but comfortable in Sanskrit and Pāli, I have been heavily dependent on three great modern thinkers who have widely written independently and also translated the Buddhist Tibetan texts, which were translated from the original Sanskrit texts now lost, into English in the areas of Buddhist epistemology, logic, and semantics. These modern scholars are Masaaki Hattori, Shoryo Katsura, and Richard Hayes. Besides them, I have also little benefitted from some other scholars who have worked in the same areas.

UM OLHAR SOBRE A PSICOMOTRICIDADE

The aim of this article is to present a reflective look at a recent professional activity in great expansion: psychomotricity. Psychomotricity is approached as a body-mediated praxis that is based, in a transdisciplinary and complex way, on several areas of knowledge ranging from neurosciences to psychoanalysis. It is taken into consideration that psychomotricity cannot be only functional, not only relational, not only re-educational, not only therapeutic, but which should facilitate the development or establish a therapeutic care according to the needs of each person. In the final considerations, the idea is reinforced that psychomotricity is a double negation because it is not addressed only to the body nor only to the psyche and that this area of knowledge is complex and is at the service of the complexity and particularities of the human being.