Multiple Negation Processing *

This paper considers negative triggers (negative and negative quantifiers) and the interpretation of simple sentences containing more than one occurrence of those items (multiple negation sentences). In the most typical interpretations those sentences have more negative expressions than negations in their semantic representation. It is first shown that this compositionality problem remains in current approaches. A principled algorithm for deriving the representation of sentences with multiple negative quantifiers in a DRT framework (Kamp & Reyle, 1993) is then introduced. The algorithm is under the control of an on-line checkin, keeping the complexity of negation auto-embedding below a threshold of complexity. This mechanism is seen as a competence limitation imposing (and licensing) the "abrogation of compositionality" (May 1989) observed in the socalled negative concord readings (Labov 1972, Zanuttini 1991, Ladusaw 1992). A solution to the compositionality problem is thus proposed, which is based on a control on the processing input motivated by a limitation of the processing mechanism itself. * The first version of this paper has been written while I was visiting the Human Communication Research centre and the Cognitive Science Department at the University of Edinburgh, on a grant CNRS-British academy. The stimulating and friendly atmosphere of those centres was very helpful. Special thanks are due to Lucia Tovena and Ivan Derzhanski, who read and discuss the first draft. I am also very grateful to many people who made useful comments on previous presentations of this material: E. Engdhal, R. Cooper, B. Ladusaw, R. Kempson, D. Oehrle, J. Ginzburg, E. Ejerhed, D. Godard, J.-C. Milner, C. Muller.