The Feature Distribution, Conceptual Space, and Semantic Map of Expectation-Negating Adverbs: A Case Study of Chinese, English, and Korean

This paper takes implicit negative adverbs related to expectational negation in Chinese, English, Korean, and some Chinese minority languages as examples to illustrate the characteristics of the expectation-negating category, and constructs the conceptual space and semantic map of expectation-negation. First, the synchronic semantics of the expectation negating adverbs in different languages are summarized, and their semantic features and conceptual structures are analyzed one by one in combination with real language data. Then, based on semantic associations, a conceptual space is constructed to explain the core characteristics of the expectation negation category, and a semantic map is developed to reveal the commonalities and differences of expectation-negating categories in Chinese, English, Korean, and other languages. The study finds that expectational negation belongs to the category of pragmatic negation. Chinese, English, and Korean share commonalities in the types of semantic nodes, with their synchronic evolution sequences converging. The core of the conceptual space is at the content level, while the periphery is at the speech act level.