Found at the interface between cognition, language and logic, this article debates the mental representation of negation in natural language. Following the framework supplied by Relevance Theory, it proposes that different types of negation represent actualizations of either the descriptive or the metarepresentational use. An account of descriptive negation and metarepresentational negation is provided based on the logical, semantic and pragmatic relations between the negative utterance and its formal affirmative correspondent, on the one hand, and semantic affirmative correspondent, on the other. Metarepresentational negation is defined as the rejection of a formal affirmative correspondent, always an instance of a second-order interpretation while descriptive negation represents the assertion of a negative content in the form of a semantic affirmative correspondent, always an instance of a first-order interpretation. This exploration is backed by a large corpus analysis represented by authentic Romanian and English data.