A01

Project Overview

This project investigates the relationship between negation and cancellation by (i) re-examining the logical foundations of analyzing negation as a complement-mapping operator, as opposed to a content-cancelling operator, and (ii) exploring linguistic cancellation phenomena. The main goal is to develop a theory of cancellation that is grounded in contemporary logical approaches and capable of accounting for linguistically relevant empirical data. Researchers maintain that cancellation is a negation-like phenomenon, but one that is discourse-related rather than proposition-based. Accordingly, the project investigates negation at the discourse level and engages directly with the CRC’s central research question: “Which aspects of negation are universal and why are they universal?”

Research Questions & Theoretical Framework

The theory we envisage develops along two interconnected dimensions. First, the research studies the general (‘logical’) properties of the common ground (CG) and its dynamics, focusing on the formal characteristics of the relevant parameters. Second, we identify these parameters in empirical language data so that the formal framework can be meaningfully applied to concrete conversational segments.

Methodologies & Data

To this end, researchers will collect and analyze linguistic data that exemplify cancellation and have not yet been treated within a unified perspective. The dataset will integrate examples already discussed in the literature with novel, experimentally elicited data. The research will also broaden the empirical basis to include phenomena of multimodal communication, such as (non-)manual co-speech gestures occurring in cancellation contexts. The overarching aim is to elucidate how negation relates to cancellation and how both connect to well-known discourse moves such as denial, refusal, and correction. In doing so, this project aims to develop a concise theory of CG dynamics that can accommodate the cancellation patterns observed in natural discourse.

The project will collect additional gestural and visual data to extend the Common Ground (CG) model so that it can adequately process multimodal input. It aims to formally model cases of abstention, investigating the contrast between conflicting belief states and the act of refraining from making a judgment about a proposition. The research focuses on how CG updates trigger revisions in discourse configurations involving conflicting information.