10.1799, Sum: For Query: 10.1587 Negation in French

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-10-1799. Thu Nov 25 1999. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 10.1799, Sum: For Query: 10.1587 Negation in French

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1)
Date:  Thu, 25 Nov 1999 10:37:23 +0900 (JST)
From:  kitamoto at med.keio.ac.jp (Kitamoto)
Subject:  For Query: 10.1587  Negation in French

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 25 Nov 1999 10:37:23 +0900 (JST)
From:  kitamoto at med.keio.ac.jp (Kitamoto)
Subject:  For Query: 10.1587  Negation in French

For Query Linguist list 10.1587  Negation in French

Dear linguists,

About a month ago, I sent a query to the Linguists asking native speakers
of French to make interpretation on sentences involving single negation and
double negation. I'm amazed by many responses.  I received a great deal of
useful information from many people named below. In particular, thanks to
Gilles Bernard for thoughtful interpretations, David Gaatone, Aurelien Max,
 John Reighard for helpful  contexts, De Brabanter Philippe, Sylvain
Kahane, Georges Rebuschi, Marie-Lucie Tarpent, Remy Viredaz for French
intonation or accentuation to distinguish ambiguity and Neil Coffey, Eddy
Gaytan, Pierre Larrivee, Uri Strauss for comments and suggestions for
further research.

I am very grateful to everybody who replied:
Gilles Bernard <gb at ai.univ-paris8.fr>
Roger Billerey <billerey at ucla.edu>
Neil Coffey <neil at ox.compsoc.net>
Celia Colmerauer <ccolmera at mailbos.syr.edu>
De Brabanter Philippe<pdebraba at ulb.ac.be>
David Gaatone <dgaatone at hotmail.com>
Jocelyn Gagnon<jgagnon at aupelf-uref.org>
Eddy Gaytan <egaytan`acs-popmail.uchicago.edu>
Pierre Larrivee <p.larrivee@ aston.ac.uk>
Sylvain Kahane<sk at moka.ccr.jussieu.fr>
Patrick-Andr Mather <mather at videotron.ca>
Aurelien Max <am350 at eng.cam.ac.uk>
Philippe Mennecier <phm at cimrs1.mnhn.fr>
Dominique Nouveau <D.Nouveau at let.kun.nl>
Robert Papen<Papen.Robert at uqam.ca>
Montserrat Perez-Parent<M.Perez-Parent at reading.ac.uk>
Thierry Poibeau<Thierry. Poibeau at lcr.thomson-csf.com>
Georges Rebuschi<rebuschi at ext.jussieu.fr>
John Reighard<ZapReig at ali.com>
Martine Smets<martines at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
Uri Strauss<uri at linguist.umass.edu>
Marie-Lucie Tarpent<MTARPENT.Employee.msvu at msvu1.msvu.ca>
Alain Theriault<theriaal at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA>
Brian Ulicny<bulicny at lhsl.com>
Remy Viredaz<remy.viredaz at span.ch>
Jim Walker<jwalker at univ-lyon2.fr>

Here are the original example and quetions.

(1)  Personne n'aime personne.

My question is :
Is (1) interpreted as single negation or double negation (two negative
arguments cancel each other, implying affirmative sentence)?

If it is interpreted as single negation, it will be paraphrased as
(a) Nobody loves anybody.

If it is interpreted as double negation, it will be paraphrased as
(b)Nobody loves nobody. = Somebody loves somebody.

Does focus distinguish single negation or double negation?

The summary of responses of 26 speakers are the followings.
18 speakers   get (a) interpretation.  4 speakers get  interpretation (b).
(Pair list reading: Mary loves Bob. Tom loves Ann.........) But 19 speakers
give (unspecific) interpretation (c) below, rather than (b) as double
negation.

(c) Everybody loves somebody.

12 speakers  get both (a)  and (c) interpretations.  6 speakers' response
is (a) interpretation. 7 speakers' response is (c) interpretation.  1
speaker's response is (b) interpretation.  2 speakers' response is (a) and
(b).  1 speaker's responses (a), (b), and (c).

Some speakers give a context for each interpretation as the followings.
Gilles Bernard:  (a)  "ici, personne n'aime personne"
David Gaatone:  (a) "dans cette famille personne n'aime personne"
                        (c) "il y a des gens qui n'aiment personne. mais
non, personne n'aime personne."
Aurelien Max:   (a)  disenchanted statement on life in general.
John Reighhard: (a)--Les gens s'entendent bien ici?
                             --Pas du tout! Personne n'aime personne!
                         (c)--Un misanthrope, c'est quelqu'un qui n'aime
personne.
                             -- Mais personne n'aime personne!
Remy Viredaz: (a) the situation is terrible sad.
                       (c)  in reply to a sentence that was felt to imply
that some people don't love anybody.

My another question is (repeated here) :
Does focus distinguish single negation or double negation?

The answers for distinction among  (a) (b) (c) are:(Each comment is given
by one speaker.)

(a) needs normal intonation.
(a) requires symmetrical emphasis on both 'personne'.
(b) an accent on the first 'personne'
(Gilles Bernard gave the following :"I can't absolutely exclude the second
meaning (somebody loves somebody), but it needs a special prosody, with an
accent on the first "personne", and even then,it looks to me an
(artificial) logical proposition, the translation of some formula. However,
this meaning has to be translated by love and not by like; I think the
difference is about the "fact" that love is a one to one relationship,
while like is a one to many relationship."  )
(c) requires focus stress on the subject 'personne'.  (2 speakers)
(c) requires high fall on the syllable"-sonne" in the first occurrence of
'personne'.
(c) requires heavy stress on the second 'personne'.
(c) needs a pause after 'personne':    Personne#n'aime personne.
Sylvain Kahane gave  very kindful another example:
a) Personne ne parle  personne
   'neg(somebody speaks to somebody)'
b)Personne # ne parle  personne
   'everybody speaks to somebody'
c)A personne # personne ne parle
   'to everybod, somebody speaks'

I will forward the original answers on request. Once again, thank you to
all the above mentioned speakers for their help.  A draft of a paper making
use of the above information is now being written.  I will send the paper
to  anyone who is interested in it.  Comments welcome.

Best wishes,

Ms. Misako Kitamoto
e-mail: kitamoto at med.keio.ac.jp










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