Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourse
The aim of this paper is to view double negation in the light of its semantic and pragmatic meaning. While double negation in logic gives a positive value, in natural languages, besides having positive entailment, it can have a range of different implicatures and functions. Thus, depending on diffe...
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University of Tuzla, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
2025-01-01
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| Series: | ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics) |
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| Online Access: | http://exell.untz.ba/index.php/exell/article/view/42 |
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| author | Merima Osmankadić |
| author_facet | Merima Osmankadić |
| author_sort | Merima Osmankadić |
| collection | DOAJ |
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The aim of this paper is to view double negation in the light of its semantic and pragmatic meaning. While double negation in logic gives a positive value, in natural languages, besides having positive entailment, it can have a range of different implicatures and functions. Thus, depending on different discoursal factors, double negation can be used for different motives, e.g. the speaker is not sure whether a certain proposition is true or is sure that it is not true, to name just one. The analysis is carried out on the database consisting of the reports, interviews and articles of the High Representative and his associates in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1995 to 2001.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-99d85b5eb6ec467bb4b29b2c425077b6 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2303-4858 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | University of Tuzla, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics) |
| spelling | doaj-art-99d85b5eb6ec467bb4b29b2c425077b62025-08-20T03:05:02ZengUniversity of Tuzla, Faculty of Humanities and Social SciencesExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics)2303-48582025-01-0132Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourseMerima Osmankadić0University of Sarajevo The aim of this paper is to view double negation in the light of its semantic and pragmatic meaning. While double negation in logic gives a positive value, in natural languages, besides having positive entailment, it can have a range of different implicatures and functions. Thus, depending on different discoursal factors, double negation can be used for different motives, e.g. the speaker is not sure whether a certain proposition is true or is sure that it is not true, to name just one. The analysis is carried out on the database consisting of the reports, interviews and articles of the High Representative and his associates in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1995 to 2001. http://exell.untz.ba/index.php/exell/article/view/42discoursedivision of pragmatic labourdouble negationimplicaturepresupposition |
| spellingShingle | Merima Osmankadić Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourse ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics) discourse division of pragmatic labour double negation implicature presupposition |
| title | Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourse |
| title_full | Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourse |
| title_fullStr | Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourse |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourse |
| title_short | Why is “not infrequent” not always “frequent”? Double negation in political discourse |
| title_sort | why is not infrequent not always frequent double negation in political discourse |
| topic | discourse division of pragmatic labour double negation implicature presupposition |
| url | http://exell.untz.ba/index.php/exell/article/view/42 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT merimaosmankadic whyisnotinfrequentnotalwaysfrequentdoublenegationinpoliticaldiscourse |