Double negatives

**Tdol** · 01-Sep-2003, 22:16

What do you think?

**Tdol** · 01-Sep-2003, 22:18

I did have a definitely not option as well, but the system only allows two possibilities. ;-(

**RonBee** · 02-Sep-2003, 16:36

It can. We Americans have been conditioned by our educational system to believe that it is a bad thing.

**Tdol** · 02-Sep-2003, 16:57

You will find few educated speakers using it here, despite the fact that Shakespeare did.

**RonBee** · 02-Sep-2003, 17:21

There is a particular kind of "double negative" that is used by many well-respected writers. It manifests itself in expressions like not uncommon, not unusual, and not unlikely. In my humble opinion, it has the problem of vagueness if not verbosity. (I am sure there are those who will disagree.) The meaning of common is imprecise, so the meaning of not uncommon is doubly imprecise.

As I said, that is my opinion. Many (perhaps most) will disagree with it.

:)

**Tdol** · 02-Sep-2003, 21:05

Those expressions are very common in BE. ;-|

**RonBee** · 02-Sep-2003, 22:13

Many vague expressions are quite common, but I try to avoid them, as they lack clarity.

**Red5** · 03-Sep-2003, 12:57

Originally Posted by tdol

I did have a definitely not option as well, but the system only allows two possibilities. ;-(

Does it? I just added the Definitely Not option!

**Tdol** · 03-Sep-2003, 14:48

It ate mine- how did you do it?

**dduck** · 03-Sep-2003, 18:26

Originally Posted by RonBee

There is a particular kind of "double negative" that is used by many well-respected writers. It manifests itself in expressions like not uncommon, not unusual, and not unlikely. In my humble opinion, it has the problem of vagueness if not verbosity. (I am sure there are those who will disagree.) The meaning of common is imprecise, so the meaning of not uncommon is doubly imprecise.

As I said, that is my opinion. Many (perhaps most) will disagree with it.

:)

As tdol pointed out this type of double negative is common in BE. When I was thinking about the question these examples didn't occur to me. In my original comment I made mention to Spanish:

No me gusta a nadie = I don't like nobody.
No sé nada = I don't know nothing.

These are the types of double negatives I was thinking of, which sound awful to me in English, but perfectly acceptable in Spanish.

Iain

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