There was a joke in our local paper the other day.
Quote:
(loosely) A Linguistics professor was lecturing a university class about the use of double negatives and said:- 'Many languages use a double negative as a positive while the Russian language regards it as a negative. Double positives are different because no language uses a double positive as a negative'
From the back of the class a student retorted 'Yeah, right'
This led me to think about how doubles can be compounded almost across the sentence i.e. 'you can NOT expect me NOT to do "A"' (if doing 'A' was considered normal behaviour) is much clearer than 'you can NOT NOT expect me to do "A"' (where the NOT NOT is redundant).
Does anybody else have any interesting compound double positive/negative examples?
hard·ly –adverb
1. only just; almost not; barely: We had hardly reached the lake when it started raining. hardly any; hardly ever.
2. not at all; scarcely: That report is hardly surprising.
3. with little likelihood: He will hardly come now.
4. forcefully or vigorously.
5. with pain or difficulty.
6. British. harshly or severely.
7. hard.
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'Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.' Stephen Hawking
'There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower.' Richard Feynman
My girlfriend is always using a double negative as a positive. She's always yelling 'don't...stop'.
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Hypography Science Forums Moderator
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"There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew." - Marshall McLuhan
"We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it." - Marie Curie
I've noticed that all statements in the format of NOT UN-xxxx, or NOT DIS-xxxx are all compound double negatives, although some of them should be excluded because they don't make much sense.
I've noticed that all statements in the format of NOT UN-xxxx, or NOT DIS-xxxx are all compound double negatives, although some of them should be excluded because they don't make much sense.
Hi Laurie,
In my example, poetic license took hold. Not bad, aye?
---------------- semantics is not always just pedantic quibbling. ~ douglas r. hofstadter
Re: Double Positives and Double Negatives
semantics is not always just pedantic quibbling. ~ douglas r. hofstadter
