Denials and negative emotions: A unified analysis of the Cantonese expressive Gwai2

This paper deals with the Cantonese morpheme gwai2 ( 鬼, lit. 'ghost') which, besides its spooky nominal use, also conveys expressive meaning when modifying a wide range of expressions: adjectives, verbs, wh-pronouns, etc. We begin by reviewing the empirical domain of gwai2 and different claims of the literature concerning its dual nature as an intensifier and a mixed-expressive conveying at-issue negation. We discuss both of these claims, showing that gwai2 cannot be treated as an intensifier in the usual sense, and that it does not contribute a truth-conditional negation, but rather a form of denial. We then propose a unified analysis of the morpheme based on the assumption that it indicates a negative attitude of the speaker towards its argument, notably by showing how to derive denials from this negative attitude. Copyright © 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.