Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Double Negative

My Professor for my English Language Usage class shared this story with us. I thought it was funny enough to share with all of you.

A professor for a Language Usage class was teaching his class about double negatives. He explained that in some languages, like Spanish, using more than one negative does not change the meaning; it is still a negative. In English, the double negative can either be used to emphasize the negative, or to create a weak affirmative.

"However, in no language do two positives make a negative."

That's when a student in the back of the room piped up,
"Yeah, right."

3 comments:

Pa Bradford said...

what about a double "what", as in, " uh huh? or uh huh! or maybe, uh...huh!

Actually, are uh and huh even real words? Or are they like reverting to caveman noises? (sorry cavemen on TV, no disrespect intended)

:)

Trent said...

That is so funny!! "Yeah, right." A double positive can make a negative. You have to love sarcasm!

Trent said...

I don't not understand what it isn't that this story ain't trying to say...