현대중국어 이중부정문의 출현 양상과 화용적 선택 조건

Abstract

This study explores the various discourse contexts in which double negation sentences appear and analyzes the speaker’s intentions embedded in these sentences, using pragmatic strategies to clarify the unique features of double negation sentences. Double negation, a cross-linguistically universal linguistic phenomenon, typically refers to sentences that incorporate two negators. In essence, when two negators in a single sentence perform the function of negation, each negator semantically marks negation, which leads to the overall negation being nullified, thus resulting in the loss of the negative meaning. Despite the fact that double negation sentences can convey the same meaning as their affirmative counterparts, speakers in specific contexts choose to use the longer and more intricate double negation structure. This study examines the appearance patterns and usage contexts of five types of double negation formed through the combination of the Chinese negators ‘不’ and ‘沒有’. The five structures analyzed—’不是不X’, ‘不是沒(有)X’, ‘沒(有)不X’, ‘沒有X不Y’, and ‘不M不X’—were chosen due to their relatively high frequency of appearance in corpus observations. This analysis revealed that the speaker’s decision to employ a double negation form rather than an affirmative one to express a particular meaning reflects pragmatic strategies such as avoiding direct assertion, emphasizing the statement, maintaining discourse coherence, and utilizing metalinguistic negation. Additionally, it was argued that discourse-related factors significantly influence these strategies.