A Pragmatic Analysis Of Negaiton In Paul Auter’s Ciyt Of Glass

As one of the most common linguistic phenomena, negation has long drawn the attentionof linguists. So far, studies on negation have made considerable achievements, but most ofthem are still semantic oriented. With the insights already obtained in sight, the present studyattempts to analyse negation based on conversational implicature, relevance theory andpresupposition from a pragmatic perspective, and explore its discourse functions with thediscussion of relevant extracts from the novel, City of Glass.Compared with affirmation, negation is a marked expression form. Take the economyinto consideration, the affirmative structure, instead of negative structures, seems to own thepreference as a general rule. Nevertheless, studies find that the use of negation is not justsimple out of its markedness or not. From the perspective of discourse pragmatics, thisstructure is usually applied with intention, which overtly violating the cooperative principleand relevance theory.America writer Paul Auster’s master work, City of Glass made his name in contemporaryAmerican literary world. Studies on this novel mainly concentrate on its theme andanti-detective genre. Few of them probe into its language. The ingenious present of this noveldoes not only lie in the whirling plot and the multilayer narrative strategy, but also the subtleuse of language. Through the intensive reading of it, we find that the ingenious use of a massof negative structures is an important language feature of this novel. This thesis takes City ofGlass as a broad context, and selects some typical extracts from it to discuss the negativestructures based on conversational implicature, relevance theory and presupposition. Throughthe analysis, it is found that these negative structures have particular and profuse discoursefunctions. Negative structures can generate conversational implicatures and eliminate existingcontextual assumptions. Concretely speaking, firstly, it gives prominence to the backgroundinformation of discourse. Secondly, it can block wrong information and rechannel the flow ofinformation. Finally, negation is an effective way to establish conherence of the text due to itspresuppositional nature. From the angle of literature text, the use of negation highlights thetheme of this novel, indeterminacy and contingency, paves the way for the protagonist’s constant quest for identity, and draws the readers’ attention by setting and breaking suspense.In a word, the negative structure in this novel is an intentional use which not only servesthe narrative arrangement, but also plays for delivering the theme. Negation plays animportant role in establishing coherence of the discourse.