knudsen@ihnss.UUCP (07/22/83)
Double negatives are not confined to creole, pidgin, or whatever. My college Russian teacher empgasized that Russian uses double, triple, or more negatives as desired for increased emphasis -- "the more neg's you put in, the negativer it gets." In my own jargon, I would ssay the Russians prefer the "analog" interpretation of negatives (more is more) to our formal "digital" scheme (truth = even parity over # of negatives). Who the hell wants to compute parities in their heads in realtime? I HATE sentences in Enlgish like "...this criticism was not undeserved" or even "...it is unlikely that this criticism was not undeserved" (yes, I really saw that TRIPLE job recently in a book review).. Don't like to have to stop and count on my fingers to know whose side that author was on.... mike k
bill@utastro.UUCP (07/29/83)
Who the hell wants to compute parities in their heads in realtime? I HATE sentences in Enlgish like "...this criticism was not undeserved" or even "...it is unlikely that this criticism was not undeserved" (yes, I really saw that TRIPLE job recently in a book review).. So do I! Especially when they can be avoided by simple rewording. If my parity count of the negatives in that last abomination is correct, "...this criticism was probably undeserved" is much better. Bill (not afraid to defend English from the Philistines) Jefferys Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (Snail) kpno!utastro!bill (uucp) utastro!bill@utexas-11 (ARPA)