ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an example of how the approach to pragmatics works out in practice, by applying it to the pragmatics of negation and interrogation in English. The separation of semantics from pragmatics is justified if it can be shown that there are different kinds of regularities to be observed on each of these levels, and that the relation between these two kinds of regularity can be explained in a principled way. On the semantic level, rules can be formulated to account for the logical relations between affirmative and negative, assertive and non-assertive, and declarative and interrogative sentences, and to account for the apparent asymmetry of these categories in syntax. On the pragmatic level, generalizations can be made about the way in which the Cooperative Principle (CP) and the Politeness Principle (PP) determine the form of linguistic behaviour in relation to communicative function.
