Differentiation of Negation from the Perspective of State of Affairs: A Case Study on the Construction Competition Between 'bingbu X' and 'youbu X'

This paper makes a comparison on two negation constructions in modern Mandarin: 'bingbu X' and 'youbu X'.With a comprehensive review of the existing studies, it focuses on the key nuances of the two constructions by posing them in the framework of construction competition, and by controlling undirected variables.Then based on of the theory of state of affairs, it pragmatically differentiates their essential distinction: 'bingbu X' represents the negation of what it is, while 'youbu X' the negation of what should be.The given account both solves some tough problems and shows the interpretability in the existing studies.