[net.nlang] Double negatives

CSvax:Pucc-H:aeq@pur-ee.UUCP (08/23/83)

Here is an example where a double negative has a distinctly different meaning
from the non-negative:

"I am not sure that, as a conscientious detective, my first duty is not to
arrest the whole household."

-- Sherlock Holmes in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

If the "not"s are eliminated from that sentence, the meaning changes markedly.

-- Jeff Sargent