uinimmiiitumiimanmu - Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Intreduetíen
discourse account of negation cannot overlook its properties as
a Lruth functional operator, and its semantic and pragmatic
functions. Indeed, 1 wish Lo claim LhaL a disceurse approach Lo
riegacion must necessarily deal wiLh sernantic, pragmatic and
cognitive aspects.
Turning once more Lo hypoLhesis 1, that negation is a marked
phenomenon in Catch-22, my airn is Lo explore in what way this
claim may be defended. For this purpose, 1 carry out an anlysis
of negation in Catch-22 brom a qualitative and a quantiLative
perspecLive. The qualiLative analysis is primary with respect Lo
Lhe guantitative analysis, since Lhe latter is only intended Lo
supporL Lhe observations made brom a qualitative standpoint and
help systemaLise Lhe different bunctions proposed for negative
clauses. From a qualitative sLandpoint, 1 argue that negation in
Catch-22 presenÉs salienL features which make it a natural
toregrounding device which creates a pattern of discourse
deviation. This pattern of disceurse deviation brings into focus
significant Lhemes ob Lhe novel, such as war, death, madness,
religion, economy and business, and has a defamiliarising effect
en a potential reader, since it leads to Lhe quesLioning ob
Laken-for-granted assumptions abaut how Lhe major themes are
understood in our world. The perception ob saliency and Lhe
consequent awareness of a paLLern ob discourse deviation is, of
course, subjective. This means thaL the observations made during
Lhe discussion and Lhe conclusions reached at Lhe end of Lhe
research rely heavily on my own perception ob the oddity of
negation in the context within which iL occurs.
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