Editing Double negative (section)

==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 [[#Lowth|below]]): this is known as [[litotes]]. 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.''
:<nowiki>=</nowiki> There's some other way. Negative: isn't (is not), no
versus
* ''There isn't no other way!''
:<nowiki>=</nowiki> 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.
<!-- The following is a clever anecdote but not directly relevant -->
<!-- The context-dependent nature of this rhetorical device in English is illustrated in a well-known linguistic anecdote. Oxford philosopher of language [[J. L. Austin]] gave a lecture in which he noted that there are many languages wherein a double negative makes a positive, but none in which a double positive makes a negative.  From the audience, Columbia philosopher [[Sidney Morgenbesser]] replied, "Yeah, yeah."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001314.html|title=IF P, SO WHY NOT Q?|work=Language Log|author=Mark Liberman|author-link=Mark Liberman}}</ref>
-->

{{anchor|Lowth}}In [[Standard written English|Standard English]], 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''.<ref>{{cite book|last = Fromkin|first = Victoria |author2=Rodman, Robert |author3=Hyams, Nina|title = An Introduction to Language, Seventh Edition|publisher = Heinle|year = 2002|page = 15|isbn = 0-15-508481-X }}</ref> 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]]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]] 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===
[[File:friar-canterbury-tales.jpg|thumb|right|The Friar from the [[Ellesmere Chaucer|Ellesmere Manuscript]] of [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'']]
Discussing English grammar, the term "double negative" is often,<ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|double negative|collegiate}}</ref> though not universally,<ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|double negative }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.memidex.com/double-negative |title=double negative |work=Memidex/WordNet Dictionary |access-date=2012-06-11}}</ref> applied to the [[Standard English|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]], [[African American Vernacular English]], and various British regional dialects. Indeed, they were used in [[Middle English]]: for example, [[Chaucer]] made extensive use of double, triple, and even quadruple negatives in his ''[[Canterbury Tales]]''. About the Friar, he writes "{{lang|enm|Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous}}" ("There never was no man nowhere so virtuous"). About the Knight, "{{lang|enm|He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / In all his lyf unto no maner wight}}" ("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]] 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."<ref>{{cite book | last=Fraser | first=Antonia | title=Cromwell : the Lord Protector | publisher=Alfred A. Knopf | location=New York | year=1973 | isbn=978-0-917657-90-0 | oclc=728428 | page=129}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Forster|first=John|title=The Statesmen of the Commonwealth of England: With a Treatise on the Popular Progress in English History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=088_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA139|year=1840|publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans|pages=139–140}}</ref> Although this particular letter has often been reprinted, it is frequently changed to read "not ... to be any more" instead.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

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]] and does not negate the argument of the sentence.

An exception is when the second negative is stressed, as in ''I'm not doing {{em|nothing}}; 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., {{nowrap|1=−(−2) = +2}}; 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]] nor [[Existentialism]].''

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]] or [[Existentialism]]''; 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]] - [[Paradise Lost]]

:''I never was, nor never will be'' ~ [[William Shakespeare]] - [[Richard III]]

The negatives herein do not cancel each other out but simply emphasize the negative clause.

[[File:Multiple negation.png|thumb|Distinction of ''duplex negatio affirmat'' (logical double negation) and ''duplex negatio negat'' (negative concord and pleonastic a.k.a. explective, paratactic, sympathetic, abusive negation) phenomena<ref>{{cite book| chapter=Multiple negation in English and other languages|first=LR|last=Horn|year=2010|title=The expression of negation|series=The expression of cognitive categories|volume=4|editor-first=LR|editor-last=Horn|location=Berlin|publisher=Walter de Gruyter-Mouton|isbn=978-3-110-21929-6|oclc=884495145|page=112}}</ref>]]
Up to the 18th century, double negatives were used to emphasize negation.<ref name="Kirby">{{cite book |date=n.d. | url = https://www.american.edu/cas/tesol/resources/upload/Kirby_Philippa.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100803182028/https://www.american.edu/cas/tesol/resources/upload/Kirby_Philippa.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2010-08-03 | publisher = American University |access-date = 2010-08-03 |first=Philippa |last=Kirby | title = Double and Multiple Negatives | page =  2}}</ref> "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.{{sfn|Kirby|n.d.|p=4}} 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.{{sfn|Kirby|n.d.|p=5}} 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.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/02/grammar-myths-3/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120215134942/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/02/grammar-myths-3/ | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2012-02-15 | title = Grammar myths #3: Don't know nothing about double negatives? Read on... | work = Oxford Dictionaries Blog |access-date = 2012-02-15}}</ref>

In his ''Essay towards a practical English Grammar'' of 1711, [[James Greenwood (grammarian)|James Greenwood]] first recorded the rule: "Two Negatives, or two Adverbs of Denying do in English affirm".<ref name = "Kallel">{{cite book | last = Kallel |first = Amel | title = The Loss of Negative Concord in Standard English: A Case of Lexical Reanalysis |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ffwqBwAAQBAJ |year = 2011 |publisher = Cambridge Scholars Publishing | isbn = 978-1-4438-2815-4 }}</ref> [[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".<ref name = "Kallel" /> 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.{{sfn|Kallel|2011|pp=130–131}}

===In film and TV===

Double negatives have been employed in various films and television shows. In the film ''[[Mary Poppins (film)|Mary Poppins]]'' (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|Stinking Badges]]" scene of [[John Huston]]'s ''[[The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (film)|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 [[The Simpsons opening sequence#Chalkboard gag|opening sequence chalkboard gag]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1–20 |publisher=[[HarperCollins|Harper Collins Publishers]] |year=2010 |editor=Bates, James W. |editor2=Gimple, Scott M. |editor3=McCann, Jesse L. |editor4=Richmond, Ray |editor5=Seghers, Christine |isbn=978-0-00-738815-8 |edition=1st |pages=532–533|title-link=Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1–20 }}</ref>

In the [[Harry Enfield]] 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]]'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 [[The Rolling Stones]]' "[[(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction]]"). Other examples include [[Ain't Nobody]] ([[Chaka Khan]]), [[Ain't No Sunshine]] ([[Bill Withers]]), and [[Ain't No Mountain High Enough]] ([[Marvin Gaye]]).