Double negative
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A double negative is a construction occurring when two forms of grammatical
negation In logic, negation, also called the logical not or logical complement, is an operation (mathematics), operation that takes a Proposition (mathematics), proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P, P^\prime or \over ...
are used in the same sentence. This is typically used to convey a different shade of meaning from a strictly positive sentence ("You're not unattractive" vs "You're attractive"). Multiple negation is the more general term referring to the occurrence of more than one negative in a
clause In language, a clause is a Constituent (linguistics), constituent or Phrase (grammar), phrase that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic Predicate (grammar), predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject (grammar), ...
. In some languages, double negatives cancel one another and produce an affirmative; in other languages, doubled negatives intensify the negation. Languages where multiple negatives affirm each other are said to have negative concord or emphatic negation. Lithuanian, Portuguese, Persian, French, Russian, Polish, Bulgarian,
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, Spanish, Icelandic,
Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
, Italian,
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
, and
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
are examples of negative-concord languages. This is also true of many vernacular dialects of
modern English Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England England is a Count ...
. Chinese,
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, German (with some exceptions in various High German dialects), Dutch, Japanese, Swedish and modern
Standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone codification to the point of being socially perceived as the standard language, associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and off ...
are examples of languages that do not have negative concord. Typologically, negative concord occurs in a minority of languages. Languages without negative concord typically have negative polarity items that are used in place of additional negatives when another negating word already occurs. Examples are "ever", "anything" and "anyone" in the sentence "I haven't ever owed anything to anyone" (cf. "I haven't never owed nothing to no one" in negative-concord dialects of English, and "" in Portuguese, lit. "Never have I owed nothing to no one", "" in Italian, or "" in Polish). Negative polarity can be triggered not only by direct negatives such as "not" or "never", but also by words such as "doubt" or "hardly" ("I doubt he has ever owed anything to anyone" or "He has hardly ever owed anything to anyone"). Because standard English does not have negative concord but many varieties and registers of English do, and because most English speakers can speak or comprehend across varieties and registers, double negatives as
collocation In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words t ...
s are functionally auto-antonymic (contranymic) in English; for example, a collocation such as "ain't nothin" or "not nothing" can mean either "something" or "nothing", and its
disambiguation Word-sense disambiguation is the process of identifying which sense of a word is meant in a sentence or other segment of context. In human language processing and cognition, it is usually subconscious. Given that natural language requires ref ...
is resolved via the contexts of register, variety, location, and content of ideas. Stylistically, in English, double negatives can sometimes be used for affirmation (e.g. "I'm not feeling unwell"), an
understatement Understatement is an expression of lesser strength than what the speaker or writer actually means or than what is normally expected. It is the opposite of embellishment or exaggeration, and is used for emphasis, irony, hedging, or humor. A part ...
of the positive ("I'm feeling well"). The rhetorical term for this is
litotes In rhetoric, litotes (, ), also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figures of speech, figure of speech and form of irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, o ...
.


English


Two negatives resolving to a positive

When two negatives are used in one independent clause, in standard English the negatives are understood to cancel one another and produce a weakened affirmative (see the Robert Lowth citation below): this is known as
litotes In rhetoric, litotes (, ), also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figures of speech, figure of speech and form of irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, o ...
. However, depending on how such a sentence is constructed, in some dialects if a verb or adverb is in between two negatives then the latter negative is assumed to be intensifying the former thus adding weight or feeling to the negative clause of the sentence. For this reason, it is difficult to portray double negatives in writing as the level of intonation to add weight in one's speech is lost. A double negative intensifier does not necessarily require the prescribed steps, and can easily be ascertained by the mood or intonation of the speaker. Compare * ''There isn't no other way.'' := There's some other way. Negative: isn't (is not), no versus * ''There isn't no other way!'' := There's no other way! These two sentences would be different in how they are communicated by speech. Any assumption would be correct, and the first sentence can be just as right or wrong in intensifying a negative as it is in cancelling it out; thereby rendering the sentence's meaning ambiguous. Since there is no adverb or verb to support the latter negative, the usage here is ambiguous and lies totally on the context behind the sentence. In light of punctuation, the second sentence can be viewed as the intensifier; and the former being a statement thus an admonishment. In
Standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone codification to the point of being socially perceived as the standard language, associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and off ...
, two negatives are understood to resolve to a positive. This rule was observed as early as 1762, when Bishop Robert Lowth wrote ''A Short Introduction to English Grammar with Critical Notes''. For instance, "I don't disagree" could mean "I certainly agree", "I agree", "I sort of agree", "I don't understand your point of view (POV)", "I have no opinion", and so on; it is a form of "
weasel word In rhetoric, a weasel word, or anonymous authority, is a word or phrase aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague, ambiguous, or irrelevant claim has been communicated. The t ...
s". Further statements are necessary to resolve which particular meaning was intended. This is opposed to the single negative "I don't agree", which typically means "I disagree". However, the statement "I don't completely disagree" is a similar double negative to "I don't disagree" but needs little or no clarification. With the meaning "I completely agree", Lowth would have been referring to
litotes In rhetoric, litotes (, ), also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figures of speech, figure of speech and form of irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, o ...
wherein two negatives simply cancel each other out. However, the usage of intensifying negatives and examples are presented in his work, which could also imply he wanted either usage of double negatives abolished. Because of this ambiguity, double negatives are frequently employed when making back-handed compliments. The phrase "Mr. Jones wasn't incompetent." will seldom mean "Mr. Jones was very competent" since the speaker would've found a more flattering way to say so. Instead, some kind of problem is implied, though Mr. Jones possesses basic competence at his tasks.


Two or more negatives resolving to a negative

Discussing English grammar, the term "double negative" is often, though not universally, applied to the non-standard use of a second negative as an intensifier to a negation. Double negatives are usually associated with regional and ethnical dialects such as
Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas ...
,
African American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, voca ...
, and various British regional dialects. Indeed, they were used in
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...
: for example,
Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...
made extensive use of double, triple, and even quadruple negatives in his ''
Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, as part of a fictional storytellin ...
''. About the Friar, he writes "" ("There never was no man nowhere so virtuous"). About the Knight, "" ("He never yet no vileness didn't say / In all his life to no manner of man"). Following the battle of Marston Moor,
Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...
quoted his nephew's dying words in a letter to the boy's father Valentine Walton: "A little after, he said one thing lay upon his spirit. I asked him what it was. He told me it was that God had not suffered him to be no more the executioner of His enemies." Although this particular letter has often been reprinted, it is frequently changed to read "not ... to be any more" instead. Whereas some double negatives may resolve to a positive, in some dialects others resolve to intensify the negative clause within a sentence. For example: * ''I didn't go nowhere today.'' * ''I'm not hungry no more.'' * ''You don't know nothing.'' * ''There was never no more laziness at work than before.'' In contrast, some double negatives become positives: * ''I didn't not go to the park today.'' * ''We can't not go to sleep!'' * ''This is something you can't not watch.'' The key to understanding the former examples and knowing whether a double negative is intensive or negative is finding a verb between the two negatives. If a verb is present between the two, the latter negative becomes an intensifier which does not negate the former. In the first example, the verb ''to go'' separates the two negatives; therefore the latter negative does not negate the already negated verb. Indeed, the word 'nowhere' is thus being used as an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
and does not negate the argument of the sentence. An exception is when the second negative is stressed, as in ''I'm not doing ; I'm thinking.'' A sentence can otherwise usually only become positive through consecutive uses of negatives, such as those prescribed in the later examples, where a clause is void of a verb and lacks an adverb to intensify it. Two of them also use emphasis to make the meaning clearer. The last example is a popular example of a double negative that resolves to a positive. This is because the verb 'to doubt' has no intensifier which effectively resolves a sentence to a positive. Had we added an adverb thus: * ''I never had no doubt this sentence is false.'' Then what happens is that the verb ''to doubt'' becomes intensified, which indeed deduces that the sentence is indeed false since nothing was resolved to a positive. The same applies to the third example, where the adverb 'more' merges with the prefix ''no-'' to become a negative word, which when combined with the sentence's former negative only acts as an intensifier to the verb ''hungry''. Where people think that the sentence ''I'm not hungry no more'' resolves to a positive is where the latter negative ''no'' becomes an adjective which only describes its suffix counterpart ''more'' which effectively becomes a noun, instead of an adverb. This is a valid argument since adjectives do indeed describe the nature of a noun; yet some fail to take into account that the phrase ''no more'' is only an adverb and simply serves as an intensifier. Another argument used to support the position double negatives aren't acceptable is a mathematical analogy: negating a negative number results in a positive one; e.g., ; therefore, it is argued, ''I did not go nowhere'' resolves to ''I went somewhere''. Other forms of double negatives, which are popular to this day and do strictly enhance the negative rather than destroying it, are described thus: :''I'm not entirely familiar with
Nihilism Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that Existential nihilism, life is meaningless, that Moral nihilism, moral values are baseless, and ...
nor
Existentialism Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...
.'' Philosophies aside, this form of double negative is still in use whereby the use of 'nor' enhances the negative clause by emphasizing what isn't to be. Opponents of double negatives would have preferred ''I'm not entirely familiar with
Nihilism Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that Existential nihilism, life is meaningless, that Moral nihilism, moral values are baseless, and ...
or
Existentialism Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...
''; however this renders the sentence somewhat empty of the negative clause being advanced in the sentence. This form of double negative along with others described are standard ways of intensifying as well as enhancing a negative. The use of 'nor' to emphasise the negative clause is still popular today, and has been popular in the past through the works of Shakespeare and Milton: :''Nor did they not perceive the evil plight'' :''In which they were'' ~
John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...
-
Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...
:''I never was, nor never will be'' ~
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
-
Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
The negatives herein do not cancel each other out but simply emphasize the negative clause. Up to the 18th century, double negatives were used to emphasize negation. "Prescriptive grammarians" recorded and codified a shift away from the double negative in the 1700s. Double negatives continue to be spoken by those of Vernacular English, such as those of Appalachian English and African American Vernacular English. To such speakers, they view double negatives as emphasizing the negative rather than cancelling out the negatives. Researchers have studied African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and trace its origins back to colonial English. This shows that double negatives were present in colonial English, and thus presumably English as a whole, and were acceptable at that time. English after the 18th century was changed to become more "logical" and double negatives became seen as canceling each other as in mathematics. The use of double negatives became associated with being uneducated and illogical. In his ''Essay towards a practical English Grammar'' of 1711, James Greenwood first recorded the rule: "Two Negatives, or two Adverbs of Denying do in English affirm". Robert Lowth stated in his grammar textbook ''A Short Introduction to English Grammar'' (1762) that "two negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative". Grammarians have assumed that Latin was the model for Lowth and other early grammarians in prescribing against negative concord, as Latin does not feature it. Data indicates, however, that negative concord had already fallen into disuse in Standard English by the time of Lowth's grammar, and no evidence exists that the loss was driven by prescriptivism, which was well established by the time it appeared.


In film and TV

Double negatives have been employed in various films and television shows. In the film ''
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'' (1964), the chimney sweep Bert employs a double negative when he says, "If you don't wanna go nowhere..." Another is used by the bandits in the " Stinking Badges" scene of
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...
's '' The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' (1948): "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges!." ''The Simpsons'' episode " Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" (1999) features Bart writing "I won't not use no double negatives" as part of the opening sequence chalkboard gag. In the
Harry Enfield Henry Richard Enfield (born 30 May 1961) is an English comedian. He is known in particular for his television work, including '' Harry Enfield's Television Programme'', '' Harry Enfield & Chums'' and '' Harry & Paul'', across which he created ...
sketch "Mr Cholmondley-Warner's Guide to the Working-Class", a stereotypical Cockney employs a septuple-negative: "Inside toilet? I ain't never not heard of one of them nor I ain't nor nothing." In music, double negatives can be employed to similar effect (as in
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
's " Another Brick in the Wall", in which schoolchildren chant "We don't need no education / We don't need no thought control") or used to establish a frank and informal tone (as in
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' " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"). Other examples include Ain't Nobody (
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), Ain't No Sunshine (
Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He is known for having several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me ( ...
), and Ain't No Mountain High Enough (
Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...
).


Other Germanic languages

Double negation is uncommon in other
West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...
. A notable exception is
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
in which it is mandatory (for example, "He cannot speak Afrikaans" becomes ''Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie'', "He cannot Afrikaans speak not"). Dialectal Dutch, French and San have been suggested as possible origins for this trait. Its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as in these examples provided by Bruce Donaldson: * ("I did not know that he would be coming.") * ("I knew that he would not be coming.") * ("He will not be coming because he is sick.") * ("It is not so difficult to learn Afrikaans.") Another point of view is that the construction is not really an example of a "double negative" but simply a grammatical template for negation. The second cannot be understood as a noun or adverb (unlike in French, for example), and it cannot be substituted by any part of speech other than itself with the sentence remaining grammatical. The grammatical particle has no independent meaning and happens to be spelled and pronounced the same as the embedded , meaning "not", by a historical accident. The second is used if and only if the sentence or phrase does not already end with either or another negating adverb. * ("I don't see you") * ("I never see you") Afrikaans shares with English the property that two negatives make a positive: * ("I don't agree with you." ) * ("I don't ''not'' agree with you," i.e., I agree with you.) Double negation is still found in the Low Franconian dialects of west
Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...
(e.g., , "I do not want to do that") and in some villages in the central Netherlands such as Garderen, but it takes a different form than that found in Afrikaans.
Belgian Dutch Flemish ( ) is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to the region known as Flanders in northern Belgium; it is sp ...
dialects, however, still have some widely-used expressions like ("never not") for "never". Like some dialects of English, Bavarian has both single and double negation, with the latter denoting special emphasis. Beyond that, triple and quadrouple negation is also present. For example, the Bavarian ("This have I yet never not heard") can be compared to the Standard German "". The German emphatic "" (roughly "never ever") corresponds to Bavarian "" or even "" in the Standard German pronunciation. ''Hat kaaner kaa Messer net do?'' ("Has nobody no knife not here?") is an example of a triple negative, ''Bei mia hot nu niamois koana koan Hunga ned ham miassn'' a quadrouple negative. Another exception is
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
for which Slavic influence causes the double (and sometimes even triple) negative to be quite common. A few examples would be: * ''ikh hob keynmol nisht gesogt'' ("I never didn't say") * ''ikh hob nisht keyn more far keynem nit'' ("I have no fear of no one not") * It is common to add ("not") after the Yiddish word ("nothing"), i.e. ("I haven't said nothing")


Latin and Romance languages

In Latin a second negative word appearing along with turns the meaning into a positive one: means "any", means "no", () means "some". In the same way, means "ever", means "never", () means "sometimes". In many Romance languages a second term indicating a negative is required. In French, the usual way to express simple negation is to employ two words, e.g. '' erb'', '' erb'', or '' erb'', as in the sentences , , and . The second term was originally an emphatic; , for example, derives from the Latin , meaning "step", so that French and Catalan originally meant "I will not walk a single step." This initial usage spread so thoroughly that it became a necessary element of any negation in the modern French language to such a degree that is generally dropped entirely, as in . In
Northern Catalan Northern Catalan (), also known as Roussillonese (''rossellonès''), is a Catalan language, Catalan dialect mostly spoken in Northern Catalonia (roughly corresponding with the region of Roussillon), but also extending in the northeast part of S ...
, may be omitted in colloquial language, and
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, which uses only as a short answer to questions. In Venetian, the double negation can likewise lose the first particle and rely only on the second: ("I eat not") and ("I come not"). These exemplify Jespersen's cycle. , , and (never, nothing, no one, nowhere) can be mixed with each other, and/or with (not anymore/not again) in French, e.g. to form sentences like (I didn't say anything to anyone) or even (He never says anything to anyone anymore). The Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian languages usually employ doubled negative
correlative In grammar, a correlative is a word that is paired with another word with which it functions to perform a single function but from which it is separated in the sentence. In English, examples of correlative pairs are ''both–and, either–or, nei ...
s. Portuguese , Spanish , Romanian and Italian (literally, "I do not see nothing") are used to express "I do not see anything". In Italian, a second following negative particle turns the phrase into a positive one, but with a slightly different meaning. For instance, while both ("I want to eat") and ("I don't want not to eat") mean "I want to eat", the latter phrase more precisely means "I'd prefer to eat". Other Romance languages employ double negatives less regularly. In Asturian, an extra negative particle is used with negative adverbs: ("I had not never seen him") means "I have never seen him" and ("I neither do not like it") means "I do not like it either". Standard Catalan and Galician also used to possess a tendency to double ''no'' with other negatives, so or , respectively meant "I have not seen her either". This practice is dying out.


Welsh

In spoken Welsh, the word (not) often occurs with a prefixed or
mutated In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA replication, DNA or viral rep ...
verb form that is negative in meaning: (word-for-word, "Not-is she not here") expresses "She is not here" and (word-for-word, "Not-will-get Aled not go") expresses "Aled is not allowed to go". Negative correlatives can also occur with already negative verb forms. In literary Welsh, the mutated verb form is caused by an initial negative particle, or . The particle is usually omitted in speech but the mutation remains: (word-for-word, " otnot-knew nobody") means "Nobody knew" and (word-for-word, " otnot-will-get Aled lots of money") means "Aled will not get much money". This is not usually regarded as three negative markers, however, because the negative mutation is really just an effect of the initial particle on the following word.


Greek


Ancient Greek

Doubled negatives are perfectly correct in
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
. With few exceptions, a simple negative (οὐ or μή) following another negative (for example, , ''no one'') results in an affirmation: ("No one was not suffering") means more simply "Everyone was suffering". Meanwhile, a compound negative following a negative strengthens the negation: ("Do not permit no one to raise an uproar") means "Let not a single one among them raise an uproar". Those constructions apply only when the negatives all refer to the same word or expression. Otherwise, the negatives simply work independently of one another: means "It was not on account of their not throwing that they did not hit him", and one should not blame them for not trying.


Modern Greek

In
Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...
, a double negative can express either an affirmation or a negation, depending on the word combination. When expressing negation, it usually carries an emphasis with it. Native speakers can usually understand the sentence meaning from the voice tone and the context. ''Examples'' A combination of and has an affirmative meaning: "" translates "Without that meaning that we can't find it." i.e. We can find it. A combination of and also has an affirmative meaning: "" translates "Doesn't mean that we can't find it." i.e. We can find it. A combination of and has a negative meaning: "" translates "You won't get any book."


Slavic languages

In
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
, multiple negatives affirm each other. Indeed, if a sentence contains a negated verb, any indefinite pronouns or adverbs must be used in their negative forms. For example, in the
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
, ("Nobody never did not do nothing nowhere") means "Nobody has ever done anything, anywhere", and ("Never I did not go there") means "I have never been there". In Czech, it is ("I have not seen never no-one nowhere"). In Bulgarian, it is: [], lit. "I have not seen never no-one nowhere", or (''), lit. "I don't know nothing". In Russian, "I know nothing" is [], lit. "I don't know nothing". Negating the verb without negating the pronoun (or vice versa), while syntactically correct, may result in a very unusual meaning or make no sense at all. Saying "I saw nobody" in Polish () instead of the more usual "I did not see nobody" () might mean "I saw an instance of nobody" or "I saw Mr Nobody" but it would not have its plain English meaning. Likewise, in Slovenian, saying "I do not know anyone" () in place of "I do not know no one" () has the connotation "I do not know just ''anyone'': I know someone important or special." In
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...
, like in many other languages, a standard double negative is used in sentences with a negative pronoun or negative conjunction, where the verb is also negated ( "nobody came", literally "nobody didn't come"). However, this doubleness is also transferred to forms where the verbal copula is released and the negation is joined to the nominal form, and such a phrase can be ambiguous: ("nobody unscathed") can mean both "nobody healthy" and "all healthy". Similarly, ("nobody absent") or ("three tasks were planned, none uncompleted"). The sentence, ("all don't were there") means not "all absented" but "there were not all" (= "at least one of them absenteed"). If all absented, it should be said ("nobody weren't there"). However, in many cases, a double, triple quadruple negative can really work in such a way that each negative cancels out the next negative, and such a sentence may be a catch and may be incomprehensible to a less attentive or less intelligent addressee. E.g. the sentence, ("I can't never not indulge in inaction") contains 4 negations and it is very confusing which of them create a "double negative" and which of them eliminated from each other. Such confusing sentences can then diplomatically soften or blur rejection or unpleasant information or even agreement, but at the expense of intelligibility: ("it can't be not seen"), ("I'm not dissatisfied"), ("it/he is not uninteresting"), ("I can't disagree").


Baltic languages

As with most
synthetic Synthetic may refer to: Science * Synthetic biology * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic elements, chemical elements that are not naturally found on Earth and therefore have to be created in ...
''
satem Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants (sounds of "K", "G" and "Y" type) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An ...
'' languages double negative is mandatory in Latvian and Lithuanian. Furthermore, all verbs and
indefinite pronoun An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun which does not have a specific, familiar referent. Indefinite pronouns are in contrast to definite pronouns. Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or noncount nouns. They often have related for ...
s in a given statement must be negated, so it could be said that multiple negative is mandatory in Latvian. For instance, a statement "I have not ever owed anything to anyone" would be rendered as . The only alternative would be using a negating subordinate clause and
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...
in the main clause, which could be approximated in English as "there has not ever been an instance that I would have owed anything to anyone" (), where negative pronouns () are replaced by
indefinite pronoun An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun which does not have a specific, familiar referent. Indefinite pronouns are in contrast to definite pronouns. Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or noncount nouns. They often have related for ...
s () more in line with the English "ever, any" indefinite pronoun structures.


Uralic languages

Double or multiple negatives are grammatically required in Hungarian with negative pronouns: (word for word: " oesn't-exists othing-of-mine, and translates literally as "I do not have nothing") means "I do not have anything". Negative pronouns are constructed by means of adding the prefixes ''se-,'' ''sem-,'' and ''sen-'' to interrogative pronouns. Something superficially resembling double negation is required also in Finnish, which uses the
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
to express negation. Negative pronouns are constructed by adding one of the suffixes ''-an,'' ''-än,'' ''-kaan,'' or ''-kään'' to interrogative pronouns: means "No one called me". These suffixes are, however, never used alone, but always in connection with . This phenomenon is commonplace in Finnish, where many words have alternatives that are required in negative expressions, for example for ("even"), as in meaning "even so much", and meaning "not even so much".


Turkish

Negative verb forms are grammatically required in Turkish phrases with negative pronouns or adverbs that impart a negative meaning on the whole phrase. For example, (literally, word for word, "Not-one thing-of-mine exists-not") means "I don't have anything". Likewise, (literally, "Never satisfied not-I-am") means "I'm never satisfied".


Japanese

Japanese employs
litotes In rhetoric, litotes (, ), also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figures of speech, figure of speech and form of irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, o ...
to phrase ideas in a more indirect and polite manner. Thus, one can indicate necessity by emphasizing that not doing something would not be proper. For instance, (', "must", more literally "if not done, annot be") means "not doing twouldn't be proper". (', also "must", "if not done, can not go') similarly means "not doing tcan't go forward". Of course, indirectness can also be employed to put an edge on one's rudeness as well. Whilst "He has studied Japanese, so he should be able to write kanji" can be phrased ('), there is a harsher idea in it: "Because he studied Japanese, there is no reason he can't write Kanji".


Chinese

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
and most
Chinese languages The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split b ...
also employ
litotes In rhetoric, litotes (, ), also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figures of speech, figure of speech and form of irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, o ...
in a likewise manner. One common construction is "" (
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
: ', "mustn't not" or "shalln't not"), which is used to express (or feign) a necessity more regretful and convenable than that expressed by "" (', "must"). Compared with "" (', "I must go"), "" (', "I mustn't not go") emphasizes that the situation is out of the speaker's hands and that the speaker has no choice in the matter: "Unfortunately, I have got to go". Similarly, "" (', "No one doesn't know") or idiomatically "无人不知" (, "There is no one who does not know") is a more emphatic way to express "Every single one knows". A double negative almost always resolves to a positive meaning and even more so in colloquial speech where the speaker particularly stresses the first negative word. Meanwhile, a triple negative resolves to a negative meaning, which bears a stronger negativity than a single negative. For example, "" (', "I do not think there is no one who does not know") ambiguously means either "I don't think everyone knows" or "I think someone does not know". A quadruple negative further resolves to a positive meaning embedded with stronger affirmation than a double negative; for example, "" (', "It is not the case that I do not know that no one doesn't like him") means "I do know that everyone likes him". However, more than triple negatives are frequently perceived as obscure and rarely encountered.


Historical development

Many languages, including all living Germanic languages, French, Welsh and some Berber and Arabic dialects, have gone through a process known as Jespersen's cycle, where an original negative particle is replaced by another, passing through an intermediate stage employing two particles (e.g.
Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...
→ Modern Standard French → Modern Colloquial French "I don't say"). In many cases, the original sense of the new negative particle is not negative ''per se'' (thus in French "step", originally "not a step" = "not a bit"). However, in Germanic languages such as English and German, the intermediate stage was a case of double negation, as the current negatives ''not'' and in these languages originally meant "nothing": e.g.
Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
"I didn't see" >>
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...
, lit. "I didn't see nothing" >> Early Modern English ''I saw not''. A similar development to a circumfix from double negation can be seen in non-Indo-European languages, Indo-European languages, too: for example, in Maltese language, Maltese, "he ate" is negated as "he did not eat", where the verb is preceded by a negative particle - "not" and followed by the particle ''-x'', which was originally a shortened form of "nothing" - thus, "he didn't eat nothing".


See also

* Affirmative and negative *
Agreement (linguistics) In linguistics, agreement or concord ( abbreviated ) occurs when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates. It is an instance of inflection, and usually involves making the value of some grammatical category (such as gen ...
*
Idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...
* Jespersen's cycle * List of common English usage misconceptions * Litotes *
Negation In logic, negation, also called the logical not or logical complement, is an operation (mathematics), operation that takes a Proposition (mathematics), proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P, P^\prime or \over ...
* Pleonasm *
Redundancy (linguistics) In linguistics, a redundancy is information that is expressed more than once. Examples of redundancies include multiple agreement features in morphology, multiple features distinguishing phonemes in phonology, or the use of multiple words to e ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Double Negative Grammar Nonstandard English grammar Semantics Ambiguity