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I've been taught that ～くて is used when linking adjectives, but as I was
reading I ran into this sentence :

> それは嘘じゃなくて？

What is exactly the meaning of ～くて in this sentence ? Why isn't it simply じゃない
?
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2017-03-30T11:39:57.993
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2017-03-30T12:41:41.273
2017-03-30T11:59:30.853
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question
grammar て-form
What does ～くて mean in this sentence?
There are two things that play into this

  1. You can think of it as some sort of ellipsis (omission):

> それは嘘じゃなくて、本当ですか？

  2. じゃない？ is often used to make a _positive_ statement

> それは嘘じゃない？  
>  _literally_ Is that not a lie?  
>  _actual meaning_ That's a lie. / That's not true.

So (2) would be a stronger statement than (1). In particular, saying (2) makes
you sound you believe the statement to be false whereas saying (1) you are
simply wondering whether it could really be true.
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2017-03-30T11:54:29.710
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2017-03-30T11:54:29.710
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answer
I'm fairly certain this is a 役割語{やくわりご} in fiction for an elegant, upper-class
lady. In this 役割語, not only can the て form be used in questions as in your
example, but also statements like this: 絶対{ぜったい}に許さなくて{ゆるさなくて}よ！
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2017-03-30T12:41:41.273
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