2336: Original Description of Double Negatives May 11, 2021

There is a common understanding of double negatives in Standard English resulting in a positive. This is not nearly as simple as the case in reality, but that's because the initial analysis of the phenomenon is often misunderstood. When Bishop Robert Lowth described this in 1762, he was discussing words to convey one's point of view, such as saying

"I don't disagree" to imply either:

• "I certainly agree"

• "I agree"

• "I sort of agree"

• "I don't understand your point of view" / "I have no opinion"

He called these 'weasel words' because one might weasel out of a situation with this linguistic vaguery around a double negative, but he did not mean this as a rule for the whole language.

2332: Double Negatives for A.I. May 7, 2021

The phrase 'double negative' is pretty vague considering how negatives really operate, and this fact might be increasingly used as a test to see what's a human and what's a computer. For instance, "I ain't got no satisfaction" is a perfectly legitimate, albeit informal phrase which contains two negatives with a negative and emphatic meaning. Moreover, "it's not unusual to be loved by anyone" is also a double negative but with a basically neutral connotation because this is not the same meaning as "it is usual". Indeed it was a description of this structure which led to the understanding of a rule of two negatives in English establishing a positive if vaguer meaning. Likewise, it has been observed that phrases like "there isn't no other way" can be interpreted as either positive or negative depending on tone and other context. This is still and likely will always be difficult for a computer to intuit, and may be used as a tool for discerning man or machine.