Posted: Dec 22, 2011 3:03 pm
Zwaarddijk wrote:Why should we assume that negation in language is the same as boolean negation (as far as scope, etc, goes? It could just as well be some other logical operation of a similar nature, and I think anyone that demands that we behave as though it is boolean negation is required to show that it really is.
Due to the brain working as it does, it's fairly more natural for it to interpret negation as something that doesn't cancel out, and this is the case, it seems in most human languages
Good point. It looks as if in some dialects negatives function as intensifiers, so don't cancel each other out. Thus 'I can't get no satisfaction' is more emphatic than 'I can't get any satisfaction'. But possibly in such dialects they just don't say 'I can't get any'. I don't know.