[LaurieAG]

There was a joke in our local paper the other day.

(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?

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by LaurieAG

Does anybody else have any interesting compound double positive/negative examples?

Not hardly.

[LaurieAG]

That's a good one Turtle.

Originally Posted by Turtle

Not hardly.

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.

[Hill]

I'm positively sure there are some others.

[freeztar]

My girlfriend is always using a double negative as a positive. She's always yelling 'don't...stop'.

[Turtle]

Beatrix was not unremarkable in appearence.

[Monomer]

We don't need no education.
We don't need no thought control.

[LaurieAG]

Hi Turtle,

Originally Posted by Turtle

Beatrix was not unremarkable in appearence.

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.

[LaurieAG]

Hi Monomer,

Originally Posted by Monomer

We don't need no education.
We don't need no thought control.

Maybe a Fleudian slip, we need education, we need thought control!

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by LaurieAG

Hi Turtle,

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?