English double negatives

[Deleted]

That is just really shitty English spoken by people that were poorly educated.

"I could care less" is a classic example.

Well, the person saying that cares enough to say that they don't care, so technically that person could care less.

It makes you a poor tutor if that is what you are teaching your students, there is nothing wrong with slang as long as it makes sense, the example we are talking about does not.

If tutors were limited to stuff that makes sense, no one would teach English anymore

[StayTuned]

I think you mean: So you DO have money. That would be the logical meaning. 'I don't have no money' means 'I have some money' (provided that you believe statements are either true or false (but never both nor neither).

But the statement "I AIN'T got NO money" would be stated with the intention of conveying that the person doesn't have any money and in fact does have no money. I think this is the reason why it is frowned upon and considered improper because the implied meaning is the opposite of the literal meaning. I agree with an earlier post that it is cultural and well-understood by most native English speakers, even if it is formally incorrect.

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. See how confusing it can get sometimes?

[Xylr]

Wtf did I just read? What's that supposed to mean?

You know how to read english. The first thing I said was "Stop these threads". If you are uncertain of what that exactly means, I'll quickly explain.

Stop crying about the english language. No one cares.

The second part "your language is bad because it doesn't sound like english. sounds like you making sounds"

Whatever your native language is, its bad compared to English. I don't care if English is the worst existing language, yours is worse. When you speak your native language you sound like a duck trying to speak English.

And, finally the third part "now, stop"

This one relates to the very first comment. Stop with these retarded threads. There are extremely annoying and lame. Find something else to do with your spare time. Instead of trying to pick apart the english language, and acting like you are a higher being.

Shut up.

Infracted for trolling.

[Adam Jensen]

Yes, but it literally makes no sense to say it this way. Double negatives always cancel each other out, making it a positive statement. If you have money, you can't have no money.

It's like math....

What does the dictionary says about that?

It's slang, mostly southern, but also occurs in the north (New England rednecks are so much like deep south southerners it isn't even funny . . . minus the accent of course.) It's grammatically incorrect and, as you've stated, doesn't make sense if you interpret it literally but it's just the way some people talk.

Ain't is a recent addition to some dictionaries and I'm not even sure how much it is accepted as a word.

[Themius]

Yes, but it literally makes no sense to say it this way. Double negatives always cancel each other out, making it a positive statement. If you have money, you can't have no money.

It's like math....

What does the dictionary says about that?

Some languages (as the post above you mentions) do use double negatives like this.

Anyway are people really so up tight about slang type talking?

[Badpaladin]

Yeah. I know It's just something that caught my attention because so many people seem to use it. Especially in songs, and it just didn't make no sense to me (joking.... :P).

Songs are expressions of emotion, often times mirroring the culture where they come from. A great example would be this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7axvIOdwy0

The references to literature, history, and other cultures are extremely dense but wrapped around a southern hip-hop drawl that by itself would be anything but "intelligent".

[Deleted]

I don't know why they wouldn't just say "I haven't got any money". "aint got no" seems like an American thing, in England they would say "aint got any".

[Adam Jensen]

You know how to read english. The first thing I said was "Stop these threads". If you are uncertain of what that exactly means, I'll quickly explain.

Stop crying about the english language. No one cares.

The second part "your language is bad because it doesn't sound like english. sounds like you making sounds"

Whatever your native language is, its bad compared to English. I don't care if English is the worst existing language, yours is worse. When you speak your native language you sound like a duck trying to speak English.

And, finally the third part "now, stop"

This one relates to the very first comment. Stop with these retarded threads. There are extremely annoying and lame. Find something else to do with your spare time. Instead of trying to pick apart the english language, and acting like you are a higher being.

Shut up.

If you don't like a thread, don't post in it. And no, English is not the best language in the world. That would be Quenya.

[Themius]

It makes you a poor tutor if that is what you are teaching your students, there is nothing wrong with slang as long as it makes sense, the example we are talking about does not.

I don't actually see the reason for slang to make perfect grammatical sense.

[Badpaladin]

It's like math....

Language is absolutely nothing like mathematics.

It makes you a poor tutor if that is what you are teaching your students, there is nothing wrong with slang as long as it makes sense, the example we are talking about does not.

I primarily taught technical writing, so I'm afraid the slang wasn't present in the work. I just find it odd that it's somehow considered uneducated to use slag that "doesn't make sense". It's a cultural quirk.

[Megadeth]

We don't need no education.

[MerinPally]

It's just a cultural thing but it doesn't make it acceptable, it's still incorrect and stupid. In the UK it's a lot of the young black people in London won't say "ask" but will pronounce it "arks" as if it's spelt "aks". Inb4 "zomg stereotyping/profiling u can't do that" yes, yes I can do that and I will do that because it's neither of them. You wouldn't look at the amount of people with face piercings and say that white people have a discriminatory problem against it because people from pacific islands have it but westerners don't.

[Tarjon]

I felt the need to contribute the following joke to the discussion, even though it's not going to get you any further

A linguistics professor is giving a lecture. He says: "In English, a double negative like 'I can't not go' is a positive. But in some other languages, like Russian, a double negative is an emphatic negative. However, there is no language where a double positive is a negative."

"Yeah, sure," someone shouts from the back row.

[Deleted]

Well, the person saying that cares enough to say that they don't care, so technically that person could care less.


If tutors were limited to stuff that makes sense, no one would teach English anymore

That much is true, it is a difficult language to master even for native speakers, as this thread clearly shows.

[StayTuned]

If you don't like a thread, don't post in it. And no, English is not the best language in the world. That would be Quenya.

Just ignore him. He doesn't even dare to post with his main, so who cares....

Some languages (as the post above you mentions) do use double negatives like this.

Anyway are people really so up tight about slang type talking?

I'm not tight up about it, it just caught my curiosity because it hurts my eyes when I read it.

[Xylr]

If you don't like a thread, don't post in it. And no, English is not the best language in the world. That would be Quenya.

I definitely didn't say English was the best language. The entire point to my post was, "Why complain to a bunch of nerds on the internet about a language that has been in existence, for who cares how long."

I think people fail to realize, there is no fixing it. There is no changing it. Shut up and deal with it. If you want to complain about the english language, be like the 5% of the world population that don't use it. Easy.

[Deleted]

A Yorkshire saying drives me nuts. Well, one of many they spout

"Same difference".

/raaaaaaaaage

[Deleted]

You know how to read english. The first thing I said was "Stop these threads". If you are uncertain of what that exactly means, I'll quickly explain.

Stop crying about the english language. No one cares.

The second part "your language is bad because it doesn't sound like english. sounds like you making sounds"

Whatever your native language is, its bad compared to English. I don't care if English is the worst existing language, yours is worse. When you speak your native language you sound like a duck trying to speak English.

And, finally the third part "now, stop"

This one relates to the very first comment. Stop with these retarded threads. There are extremely annoying and lame. Find something else to do with your spare time. Instead of trying to pick apart the english language, and acting like you are a higher being.

Shut up.

So what you you doing here?

[Xylr]

Just ignore him. He doesn't even dare to post with his main, so who cares.....

You are a blistering idiot. Go to the US World of Warcraft Armory. Search for the name Xylr. There are VERY few that are still active. And only one 90.

I wonder who the 90 is. Wait, I think thats me.

Xylr - Elemental Shaman - Stormrage US

User received infraction.

[MerinPally]

Well, the person saying that cares enough to say that they don't care, so technically that person could care less.

Yeah but noone uses it to mean that. To paraphrase David Mitchell, on a scale of caring, that phrase is used to infer that you are at 0. Now you cannot give a negative care, so it is not possible that you "could care less" if you are intending to say that you are at the lowest possible level. You now have anecdotal and graphical evidence that it's Couldn't rather than Could, rather than just the rules of the English language.

If it was used to say that you cared a small bit then fine but noone uses it in that way. At all.

EDIT: Oh yeah that's another one - you infer, I imply. Not a double negative just an example of sloppiness.