TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mazzarella, Diana
A1  - Gotzner, Nicole
T1  - The polarity asymmetry of negative strengthening
BT  - dissociating adjectival polarity from face-threatening potential
JF  - Glossa : a journal of general linguistics
N2  - The interpretation of negated antonyms is characterised by a polarity asymmetry: the negation of a positive polarity antonym (X is not interesting) is more likely to be strengthened to convey its opposite ('X is uninteresting') than the negation of a negative polarity antonym (X is not uninteresting to convey that 'X is interesting') is. A classical explanation of this asymmetry relies on face-management. Since the predication of a negative polarity antonym (X is uninteresting) is potentially face-threatening in most contexts, the negation of the corresponding positive polarity antonym (X is not interesting) is more likely to be interpreted as an indirect strategy to minimise face-threat while getting the message across. We present two experimental studies in which we test the predictions of this explanation. In contrast with it, our results show that adjectival polarity, but not face-threatening potential, appears to be responsible for the asymmetric interpretation of negated antonyms.
KW  - negation
KW  - polarity
KW  - antonyms
KW  - negative strengthening
KW  - politeness
KW  - face
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1342
SN  - 2397-1835
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
PB  - Open Library of Humanities
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Gotzner, Nicole
A1  - Mazzarella, Diana
T1  - Face Management and Negative Strengthening: The Role of Power Relations, Social Distance, and Gender
T2  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Negated gradable adjectives often convey an interpretation that is stronger than their literal meaning, which is referred to as ‘negative strengthening.’ For example, a sentence like ‘John is not kind’ may give rise to the inference that John is rather mean. Crucially, negation is more likely to be pragmatically strengthened in the case of positive adjectives (‘not kind’ to mean rather mean) than negative adjectives (‘not mean’ to mean rather kind). A classical explanation of this polarity asymmetry is based on politeness, specifically on the potential face threat of bare negative adjectives (Horn, 1989; Brown and Levinson, 1987). This paper presents the results of two experiments investigating the role of face management in negative strengthening. We show that negative strengthening of positive and negative adjectives interacts differently with the social variables of power, social distance, and gender.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 750 
KW  - conversational implicature
KW  - negation
KW  - politeness
KW  - social meaning
KW  - antonymy
KW  - adjectives
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-543907
SN  - 1866-8364
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - Universitätsverlag Potsdam
CY  - Potsdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gotzner, Nicole
A1  - Mazzarella, Diana
T1  - Face Management and Negative Strengthening
BT  - The Role of Power Relations, Social Distance, and Gender
JF  - Frontiers in psychology / Frontiers Research Foundation
N2  - Negated gradable adjectives often convey an interpretation that is stronger than their literal meaning, which is referred to as ‘negative strengthening.’ For example, a sentence like ‘John is not kind’ may give rise to the inference that John is rather mean. Crucially, negation is more likely to be pragmatically strengthened in the case of positive adjectives (‘not kind’ to mean rather mean) than negative adjectives (‘not mean’ to mean rather kind). A classical explanation of this polarity asymmetry is based on politeness, specifically on the potential face threat of bare negative adjectives (Horn, 1989; Brown and Levinson, 1987). This paper presents the results of two experiments investigating the role of face management in negative strengthening. We show that negative strengthening of positive and negative adjectives interacts differently with the social variables of power, social distance, and gender.
KW  - conversational implicature
KW  - negation
KW  - politeness
KW  - social meaning
KW  - antonymy
KW  - adjectives
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.602977
SN  - 1664-042X
VL  - 12
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne, Schweiz
ER  -