that when you use a double negative they cancel each other out therefore making it a postive.
ex.. I didn't do nothing.. (really means "i did something")
this slang is one of the most irritating things.
what do you think
how many smartbutt comments do you think this will get with people using a double negative acting like they are witty and smart?
2007-07-12 07:50:06 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Sociology
Actually double negatives used to be standard in English. Shakespeare used them...
Standard English is a socially constructed phenomenon... the speech that rich and powerful people use is the speech that becomes "standard" and "correct" even though there's no such thing as a "correct" dialect.
Other dialects have very strict grammatical rules and are just as "correct" as the standard. The only thing that matters in linguistics is how effectively communicative something is.
For many dialects double negatives add emphasis and are perfectly clear.
2007-07-12 08:22:19 · answer #1 · answered by arfblat 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I think some people realize it and some people don't.
Just like a lot of people say "I'm real happy" when "real" isn't an adverb and it should be "really".
But I've seen much worse transgressions on the internet than this- especially on Yahoo answers!
Sometimes I don't even know what the person is asking about.
If you focus too much on these things though, you might go crazy. Everyone makes mistakes, and an idiom is just an idiom. Language is meant to be played with and changed. That's why we don't speak like they do in Beowulf anymore.
2007-07-12 07:56:42 · answer #2 · answered by J W 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
How easy it is for you to stand in judgment of people who use double negatives when you misspell words! And you do not use capitalization and other grammatical marks such as commas and periods!
My point is that you should not be so critical of other people given your own imperfections.
Better to let small things like this go.
2007-07-13 10:44:05 · answer #3 · answered by Rainbow 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I have a dilemma over this sort of thing: yes, it irks me, but I also don't like to go around acting like I'm the language tsar. Still, I often find myself correcting people when they use a double negative, or when they say things like "I can't stop itching my mosquito bite." You don't itch an itch... you scratch it.
I can go on forever with stuff like that, but I'm not going to.
2007-07-12 07:55:22 · answer #4 · answered by Mickey Mouse Spears 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I guess fading probably isn't a big fan of George Bush then ?
2007-07-12 14:16:01 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I hope that the majority of people realize this. But did you know when beginning a sentence you should use capitalization and punctuations to end one?
2007-07-12 07:53:00 · answer #6 · answered by Jason J 6 · 5⤊ 1⤋
That's a peeve of mine as well. My biggest one though is when people end their sentence with a preposition.
"Where is that book at?" Ummm, no.
"Where did Brooke go to?" Negativo, my friend!
I feel ya.
2007-07-12 08:18:33 · answer #7 · answered by d_nanner 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
does it matter. this isnt a realy life situation. even if you were to create a positive it wouldnt be a strong enough to make a comeback.
2007-07-12 07:55:46 · answer #8 · answered by <SuRvivE> 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
omg i hate it when ppl use double negatives!! especially if they are older and know better!
2007-07-12 07:53:02 · answer #9 · answered by Whatsername 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i hate when people use double negatives.
it annoys me, because they're not intending them to cancle out.
2007-07-12 07:53:24 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋