Do you get confused by double negatives?

Saltmeister

Saltmeister

The Dangerous Dinner
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Can you imagine all the scenarios where you might encounter double negatives?

You are talking on the phone, filling out a survey, reading an essay or listening to a fantastic speech by a prominent person in your society and all of a sudden . . . oh no . . . they say the unthinkable.

It may seem simple to understand, that two negatives equal a positive, like when you multiply two negative numbers. Sometimes, however, I get lost trying to figure out what the speaker or writer actually meant because it isn't as simple as the mathematics of double negatives.

Saying that something is "not uncommon" is not the same as saying it is "common." It is not common, nor uncommon but rather it is "not uncommon." Does that make sense? If it was really as simple as "not uncommon = common," why doesn't the person just say "common?" The reason is that they are trying to communicate something else.

This is a really simple example. There are more complex ones where the language isn't as straightforward. I can't remember any examples except for "not indispensable" and "not irrevocable." Unfamiliar or rarely used words tend to confuse me more.
 
I will often use a double negative such as 'can't not be in the right place', which causes my mental brakes to jam, and I have to break the sentence down to get my neurons back in synch...often to the point that I forget what my original point was in saying the double negative. Always been a shiny object for my short attention span.
 
I raised my kids on double negative training.... "Double negative, double negative, means ya did, means ya did" They learned their way out of it, and often repeat it back to me when I slip up.

In the answers to quesitons they bother me. "Do you not want me to wash the car?" Is it "No I do want you to wash the car." or "No do not wash the car" "Yes, I do want you to wash the car"
 
Just remember that in English we answer the idea not the question. (English is different from most languages in this regard):

"Didn't you kill that man?"
"Did you kill that man?"

both take the same answer:

"No, I didn't."
 
Saltmeister said:
What does that mean?
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I got that phrase by putting into babelfish.yahoo.com "I don't know if the French language is guilty." I know that 'ne' and 'pas' correspond to the negative. Without them it would mean 'I know...'. I don't know if ne and pas amount to a double negative.

"Je ne sais pas si la langue française est coupable."
 
Saltmeister said:
Can you imagine all the scenarios where you might encounter double negatives?

You are talking on the phone, filling out a survey, reading an essay or listening to a fantastic speech by a prominent person in your society and all of a sudden . . . oh no . . . they say the unthinkable.

It may seem simple to understand, that two negatives equal a positive, like when you multiply two negative numbers. Sometimes, however, I get lost trying to figure out what the speaker or writer actually meant because it isn't as simple as the mathematics of double negatives.

Saying that something is "not uncommon" is not the same as saying it is "common." It is not common, nor uncommon but rather it is "not uncommon." Does that make sense? If it was really as simple as "not uncommon = common," why doesn't the person just say "common?" The reason is that they are trying to communicate something else.

This is a really simple example. There are more complex ones where the language isn't as straightforward. I can't remember any examples except for "not indispensable" and "not irrevocable." Unfamiliar or rarely used words tend to confuse me more.
Click to expand...
I don't think that is a double negative, that just another way of saying "neither." {"not this, not that" isn't a true double negative.}
 
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