An Exploration Of English Negative Logic Operator (not) And Ambiguity

This paper uses the ideas and methodology of the application of logic in linguistics as theoretic background. This paper discusses a kind of ambiguity that involves English negative logic operator (not) and certain types of adverbials, and makes disclosing the innate mechanism of the ambiguity the purpose of study. Through discussion, the understanding of English negative logic operators (not) and adverbials will be deepened.After identifying the two causes of the ambiguity as English negative logic operator (not) and certain types of adverbials, this paper follows two directions. In one direction, this paper focuses on English negative logic operator (not) and tries to show the dynamics that governs how it chooses its target. Negative logic operator (not) aims at the account center instead of a fixed sentence element. In the other direction, this paper works to discover the duality of predication analysis status of certain types of adverbials in English while trying to find the English grammatical conditions for the ambiguity. Putting the findings of the two directions together, this paper eventually gets ready to reveal the mechanism of the ambiguity. That is the combined actions of the unique dynamics of how a negative logic operator chooses a target and the changeability of the predication status of certain types of adverbials in given grammatical environments in English.