Metalinguistic Negation and Echoic use in Vietnamese

Abstract

Metalinguistic negation is a concept that stands in opposition to descriptive negation. It is a concept that has attracted attention from various schools of thought in philosophy, logic, and linguistics. Specifically, within linguistics, it has been investigated from almost all aspects (grammar, semantics, pragmatics). This article examines a specific form of metalinguistic negation in Vietnamese, which is echoing. Based on linguistic data, we analyze and demonstrate that there are two types of echoing in Vietnamese (echo sentences and echo questions) that exhibit values of metalinguistic negation. The analysis shows how these constructions function to express information focus and generate implicatures, thereby revealing the pragmatic mechanisms through which echoic use functions  as a manner of metalinguistic negation in Vietnamese.