Abstract
Preposed negation yes/no (yn)-questions like Doesn't Johndrink? necessarily carry the implicature that the speaker thinks Johndrinks, whereas non-preposed negation yn-questions like DoesJohn not drink? do not necessarily trigger this implicature. Furthermore,preposed negation yn-questions have a reading “double-checking” pand a reading “double-checking” ≠ p, as in Isn't Jane comingtoo? and in Isn't Jane coming either? respectively. We present otheryn-questions that raise parallel implicatures and argue that, in allthe cases, the presence of an epistemic conversational operator VERUMderives the existence and content of the implicature as well as thep/≠ p-ambiguity.
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Romero, M., Han, CH. On Negative Yes/No Questions. Linguistics and Philosophy 27, 609–658 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:LING.0000033850.15705.94
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:LING.0000033850.15705.94