In this project I will focus on the meaning of several occurrences of the negation non in Italian interrogative sentences which have the characteristic of not inverting the polarity of the sentence expressed in the speech act. Following that, I will evaluate the possibility of translating the mentioned occurrences of the negation non with the occurrences of the negation nicht in German. Several properties of the negations non and nicht will be analysed and corresponding classes of sentences in the two languages identified, in which the negations non and nicht seem to occur with the same meaning. Only in the last class of interrogative sentences analysed, that is, in the wh-interrogatives with rhetorical meaning, does the negation with attenuated function non turn out to be better translated, in some cases, with the Abtönungspartikel wohl, which becomes a rhetorical indicator in place of the negation. Spese partecipazione e/o organizzazione di convegni: Euro 1500