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Double negation | ||
Tags: Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| sapedro Triglot Senior Member Portugal descredito.blogspot. Joined 7118 days ago 216 posts - 219 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Greek | Message 9 of 36 23 August 2005 at 3:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Portuguese just like in Spanish.
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| winters Trilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7044 days ago 199 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian*, Russian*, English, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek, French, Hungarian | Message 10 of 36 23 August 2005 at 5:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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In italian, I think: "Non posso fare niente."
translation: I can't do anything. Literally: I can't do nothing. In croatian the same thing, but it was mentioned by others before. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7028 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 11 of 36 02 September 2005 at 6:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think French's the same with Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.
In Mandarin, I think you can have as many negative as you want, as long as people can work out the logic (usually double, sometimes triple): ni3 bu4 xi3 huan1 ta1? (You don't like her?) wo3 mei2 you3 bu4 xi3 huan1 ta1 a! (I don't don't like her!) ni3 cai2 bu2 huei4 mei2 you3 bu4 xi3 huan1 ta1 ne! (You don't don't don't like her!) Which translates into: -You don't like her? -I don't DISLIKE her! -It's impossible that you don't dislike her!(It's all written on your face......) Moreover, in Japanese, the "have to, must" sense is always (nearly) expressed by double negative (which is a possible construction in Chinese also): ikanakereba naranai/ikanakereba ikenai (have to do) bu4 neng2 bu2 qu4 (have to go) Another thing: I saw this sentence in Harry Potter: -He couldn't not go. Is this a British construction or a colloquial (grammartically incorrect) construction? Edited by epingchris on 02 September 2005 at 6:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7376 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 36 02 September 2005 at 8:28am | IP Logged | |||||
I believe this is an intentional double negation. Here the negations intentionally negate each other. Harry Potter could not bear not to go to the Honeydew Candy Shoppe in Hogsmeade. It's a way of insisting that it was too hard for him to give up going. The double negations discussed in this thread were rather both pulling in the same direction, so to speak. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7105 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 13 of 36 03 September 2005 at 10:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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Some Dutch dialects have a double negation.Translation of : I will never do that again:
Brabants: (Southern Dutch dialect) Dè doe ik nooit nie mir. (That do I never not more) Standard Dutch: Dat doe ik nooit meer. (That do I never more). Parents of our region often use it when children complain that they "don't never get an icecream" so they answer "Yes you are right, it never happens that you don't get an icecream" :) A similar construction is used in Afrikaans I am not tired = Ek is nie moeg nie (I am not tired not) vs. Dutch Ik ben niet moe (same word order as in English). Turkish has just one word for ever/never (hic , c with cedille) somebody/nobody (kimse) and the verb form determines if the negation is meant or not. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7188 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 14 of 36 03 September 2005 at 1:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Russian uses the same double negation
Я никуда не иду. Translation: I'm not going anywyere. Literal Translation: I nowhere not going. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7028 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 15 of 36 04 September 2005 at 7:19am | IP Logged | |||||
So, it's grammatically correct?
Oh, really? Then have I been off the subject all along? Hehe......it just occurs to me that "double negative=positive" seems to be present and acceptable in a lot of lanugages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sumabeast Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6926 days ago 212 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 16 of 36 23 January 2006 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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[QUOTE=epingchris]
In Mandarin, I think you can have as many negative as you want, as long as people can work out the logic (usually double, sometimes triple): ni3 bu4 xi3 huan1 ta1? (You don't like her?) wo3 mei2 you3 bu4 xi3 huan1 ta1 a! (I don't don't like her!) ni3 cai2 bu2 huei4 mei2 you3 bu4 xi3 huan1 ta1 ne! (You don't don't don't like her!) Which translates into: -You don't like her? -I don't DISLIKE her! -It's impossible that you don't dislike her!(It's all written on your face......) /QUOTE] Can chinese speakers actually follow the "logic" of that last one?! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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