[net.nlang] Ree: Double negatives, and Russi

ucbesvax.turner@ucbcad.UUCP (08/08/83)

#R:utastro:-48900:ucbesvax:6900003:000:1104
ucbesvax!turner    Aug  7 07:04:00 1983


    "This criticism was not undeserved"

That's OK: it's standard use of the double-negative as ironic under-
statement.  Sure, one can simply say "this criticism was deserved,"
except that *that* phrase cries out for a "but...."  Not so with this
double-negative: it is slightly equivocal in suggesting that criticism
was deserved--it says "it's deserved, but let's not get into that."

On the other hand,

    "...it is not unlikely that this criticism was not undeserved."

is stupid: it attempts to assign a probability ("not unlikely") to
a statement that it wants, at the same time, to leave undisturbed
by any further qualification: "not undeserved."  It is not the number
of negatives being employed that is the main problem, although that is
certainly *one* of the problems with it.  It is, rather, that it doubly-
negates any clear intent in the process.

The first says: "I am being ambiguous; bear with me."  The second says,
"I gotta get this 500-word review hacked out before the deadline."
The first is wry politeness, the second is sly rudeness.

	Michael Turner
	ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner