Song lyrics and the disruption of pragmatic processing: An analysis of linguistic negation in 10CC’s ‘I’m Not in Love’

Abstract

The lyrics of 10CC’s ‘I’m Not in Love’ revolve around a musical persona asserting that he is not in love and directing his addressee not to mistake his behaviour as indicating that he is in love with her. However, despite the negative assertions and imperatives, the feel of the song is that the musical persona is in fact in love. This article examines how the complex multimodal context of a song interacts with the prototypical pragmatic processing of negation to allow listeners to reach an interpretation of the song that contradicts the assertions made by the musical persona. The article outlines the nature of negation and examines the language and musical features that create a context of mixed messages that interferes with pragmatic processing.