The polarity of clauses embedded under neg-raising predicates

Abstract

Neg-raising inferences, whereby negated attitude predicates like don?t want to p are strengthened to mean want to not p, have previously been derived assuming that negation is underlyingly positioned within the embedded clause, and undergoes movement into the matrix clause, being interpreted via reconstruction. These kinds of accounts contrast with accounts assuming that negation is interpreted in its surface position, and the neg-raising inference is derived via semantic/pragmatic inferential mechanisms, such as a homogeneity presupposition, without the use of movement. This paper constructs an argument for the latter approach based on the interpretation of multi-dimensional adverbial operators, i.e., adverbs with a not-at-issue meaning component, within neg-raising sentences. The paper suggests that such operators are invaluable tools for diagnosing the position and behavior of negation.