De la négation de certains adverbes en -ment

Resumen

This article analyses the link between some French adverbs ending in -ment and negative structures. More specifically, our main aim is to underline how the negation of a statement including one of these adverbs is not restricted to giving a negative meaning to the corresponding affirmative sentence. To that effect, we will follow Le Querler’s work (1991) claiming that the use of some degree adverbs, such as trop, in combination with negation multiplies the number of semantic interpretations. We will illustrate this through an analysis of some specific structures like pas + ADV –ment-ending, such as pas forcément, pas nécessairement, pas spécialement, pas réellement and pas vraiment. These constructions show some semantic homogeneity in their negative form which cannot be found in their equivalent affirmative structures. More precisely, by using a corpus taken from different sources, our objective is to highlight that a qualified negative value can be seen in all the analyzed adverbs. In order to do that, we will use a non-solved alternative, in which the negation of p is considered, without completely rejecting p, while the speaker assumes a position in relation to an implicit rule.