Double negative

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A double negative occurs when two or more ways to express negation are used in same sentence. In some languages a double negative resolves to a negative, while in others it resolves to a positive.

A famous linguist once made the further observation that it was unknown for a double positive ever to resolve to a negative. A sceptical voice came from the back of the lecture hall: "Yeah, right". (This joke is often attributed to Prof. Sidney Morgenbesser of Columbia University.)

Different languages have different rules regarding double negative:

Table of contents

1 English
2 Romance
3 Serbian
4 Slovene

English

In standard English, double negatives are not used; for example the standard English equivalent of "I don't want nothing!" is "I don't want anything". It should, however, be noted that in standard English one cannot say "I don't want nothing!" to express the meaning "I want something!" unless there is very heavy stress on the "nothing".

Although they are not used in standard English, double negatives are used in African American Vernacular English, and the London Cockney dialect and less frequently, but still commonly, in colloquial English. In the film Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke uses a double negative when he says

If you don't want to go nowhere.

(Note: van Dyke's accent in this film is nothing like an authentic English accent)

Other examples of double negatives include:

Don't nobody go to the store.

I can't hardly wait.

Double negative also refers to even more than two negatives, like:

And don't nobody buy nothing.

Romance

Romance languages generally express negation by adding a word (ne in French, no in Spanish, nÃÂÃÂ£o in Portuguese) to the verb and zero or more words elsewhere to indicate what part of the sentence is negated. In French, unlike the others, simple negation usually requires the word pas:

No como.

Je ne mange pas.

Non mangio.

This was originally the same as the word for "step" (Je ne marche pas) and later extended.

The correlative negative words in Spanish and Italian are used only in negative sentences (e.g. ningÃÂÃÂºn - a positive sentence uses algÃÂÃÂºn) whereas some French negative words are the same as positive words (personne means "person" if feminine but "nobody" if masculine). This sometimes leads to confusion if the verb, and therefore the word ne, is omitted.

Serbian

In Serbian, a double negative is correct, while a single negative is an error in grammar. The following is a literal translation of a grammatically correct Serbian sentence: "No one's negligence didn't nowhere never to no one nohow bring nothing but unhappiness."

Slovene

In Slovene, much like in many other Slavic languages, double negation is a correct form, though sometimes causing confusion as to whether the positive or the negative is meant by a given (ambiguous) sentence. For example, the English sentence 'I don't know anyone' would be translated to Ne poznam nikogar (I don't know nobody); a literal translation, Ne poznam kogarkoli, is a somewhat strange construction, but means 'I don't know just anyone' (= I know someone important or special). Peculiarly, 'Nobody knows one another' becomes 'Nihče ne pozna nikogar' (No one doesn't know no one).

See also Double negative elimination