The meaning of expressions modified by double negation (e.g., not unhappy or not not interesting) has long been discussed, with views advocating that the two negations must be logically interpreted (i.e., not unhappy means happy), and others arguing that the modified expression always yields a weaker version than the unmodified expression. The current study aimed to understand the possible interpretations of double negation experimentally. We used a novel range-marking task, allowing (Hebrew-speaking) participants to mark not only the location of a certain expression on the scale, but also the size it occupies. We collected measures of the range sizes, their location, as well as the inclusion of the edge of the scale. Doubly-negated adjectives were compared to unmodified adjectives and singly-negated adjectives, and adjectives modified by hedges, considering their mitigation effect. We were able to provide the first empirical evidence that double negation can be interpreted both logically and pragmatically. Additionally, we showed dissimilarities between double negations and hedges, suggesting that doubly-negated expressions present a stronger mitigation effect than hedges.

表达的双反（例如，经修改的意义没有不开心或者不不感兴趣）早有论述，享有主张两个否定必须合理地解释（即，不快乐的手段开心)，以及其他人认为修改后的表达式总是产生比未修改的表达式更弱的版本。目前的研究旨在通过实验了解双重否定的可能解释。我们使用了一种新颖的范围标记任务，允许（讲希伯来语的）参与者不仅标记某个表情在量表上的位置，还可以标记它占据的大小。我们收集了范围大小、它们的位置以及包含量表边缘的测量值。考虑到它们的缓解效果，将双重否定形容词与未修饰形容词和单否定形容词以及被对冲修饰的形容词进行了比较。我们能够提供第一个经验证据，证明双重否定可以在逻辑上和语用上进行解释。此外，