Positive vs double negative
February 4th, 2008
In maths, two negatives multiplied together make a positive. In English, the double negative (that is two negations in a sentence) do not make a positive, contrary to popular belief and English shmexperts.
For instance, the sentence It is not uncommon to find organic food in supermarkets has a different meaning to the sentence It is common to find organic food in supermarkets . The former sentence supposedly rebuffs an assumption that organic food in supermarkets is uncommon, whilst the latter merely makes a statement about organic food. The former also makes a more eloquent case for organic food, while the latter is dry and says nothing interesting.
To take this further, consider the lyrics of the poorly written song I don’t want nothing. That colloquial expression, as Wikipedia also points out I don’t want nothing does not mean “I want something”. It just means the singer doesn’t want anything. And that’s it.
Mike said:
Interesting point, except in maths a number can either exist in its positive form or in its negative (diametrically opposed) form (we’ll leave imaginary numbers out of the equation for now) — there are no inbetween states, whereas in English there can exist a wide spectrum of states between negative and positive. For example, “common” and “uncommon” are not diametrically opposed (as your post argues, by implication). “Uncommon” merely purports to something (e.g. organic food) not being common, and not necessarily that it is rare (rare being the diametric opposite of common). In other words, something can simultaneously be uncommon and not rare.
Mathematics is (mostly) pure, untainted by the semantics to which English is (almost always) subjected.