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#121 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
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#122 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 6,475
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All of them? Don't you have the i-a-o combination at all? In Denmark, it's also used in many nursery rhymes, and Huey, Dewey & Louie are called Rip, Rap & Rup in Danish translations. |
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#123 |
Skeptical about skeptics
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: 31°57'S 115°57'E
Posts: 13,875
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"The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. Where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent." - Galbraith, 1975 |
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#124 |
Skeptical about skeptics
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: 31°57'S 115°57'E
Posts: 13,875
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"The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. Where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent." - Galbraith, 1975 |
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#125 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
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#126 |
Self Employed
Remittance Man Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Florida
Posts: 15,955
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- "Ernest Hemingway once wrote that the world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part." - Detective Sommerset - "Stupidity does not cancel out stupidity to yield genius. It breeds like a bucket-full of coked out hamsters." - The Oatmeal - "To the best of my knowledge the only thing philosophy has ever proven is that Descartes could think." - SMBC |
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#127 |
Loggerheaded, earth-vexing fustilarian
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Arcadia, Greece
Posts: 24,055
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"Even a broken clock is right twice a day. 9/11 truth is a clock with no hands." - Beachnut |
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#128 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 6,475
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#129 |
Skeptical about skeptics
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: 31°57'S 115°57'E
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I will have to take your word for it since I can't find a literal translation of the words.
The most common meaning of the phrase seems to be "I don't understand anything" but since that does not contain a double negative it may not be a literal translation. https://www.linguee.com/spanish-engl...endo+nada.html |
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"The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. Where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent." - Galbraith, 1975 |
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#130 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 6,475
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Google translate suggests either: I don't understand anything or I understand nothing. Depending on the context, it might also be: I don't understand what you're saying or I don't get it.
If you look up the words one at a time: entiendo: I understand no: not nada: nothing |
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#131 |
Self Employed
Remittance Man Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Florida
Posts: 15,955
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Do you deny that other language have "double negatives" in their sentence structure without losing understandability and clarity?
If so, you're wrong. If not this nitpick serves no purpose. Literally millions of people use languages with "double negatives" everyday without lose of clarity or precision. This is an undeniable fact. You can not like double negatives as a matter of style or fashion or personal preference, but the argument that it in any objective makes the language les clear or less precise is demonstrably false. |
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- "Ernest Hemingway once wrote that the world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part." - Detective Sommerset - "Stupidity does not cancel out stupidity to yield genius. It breeds like a bucket-full of coked out hamsters." - The Oatmeal - "To the best of my knowledge the only thing philosophy has ever proven is that Descartes could think." - SMBC |
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#132 |
Loggerheaded, earth-vexing fustilarian
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Arcadia, Greece
Posts: 24,055
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Much the same in Greek, which also has a word for 'negation of the following', much like the No in Spanish.
(In Greeklish): Echo tipota - I have nothing. Dthen echo tipota - Not I have nothing tipota, meanwhile, does not translate as 'anything' in other contexts, which would avoid the double negative. It's a pure 'nothing' word. Caution - my command of Greek is carp, but MrsB confirms all this. |
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"Even a broken clock is right twice a day. 9/11 truth is a clock with no hands." - Beachnut |
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#133 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 6,475
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French too, I think: "Je ne sais pas", "I don't know," with one of the two negations being superfluous: French language: pas
ETA: Maybe it's a Mediterranean thing! ![]() |
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#134 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,208
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And in Afrikaans:
I don't know what it is. Ek weet nie wat dit is nie. I know not what it is not. |
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"... when you dig my grave, could you make it shallow so that I can feel the rain" - DMB |
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#135 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 6,475
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Afrikaans is a Germanic language so that destroyed my Mediterranean theory ...
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#136 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,208
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Afrikaans is an exception in this regard.
"Dialectal Dutch, French and San have been suggested as possible origins for this trait." |
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"... when you dig my grave, could you make it shallow so that I can feel the rain" - DMB |
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#137 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 6,475
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Interesting!
However, this seems to be a very complicated way of denying that it's a double negative:
Quote:
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#138 |
Philosophile
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Osaka, Japan
Posts: 24,391
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There are also double negatives in Russian. I remember learning a few phrases years ago when I visited Russia, and when I tried to analyze the words I couldn’t understand why there were double negatives. It’s just the way the grammar is in Russian, apparently.
I also know examples of double negatives in both formal and informal Japanese. The adverb “amari” is a negative, but it can go with negatives such as “didn’t eat” - “I didn’t eat not much”. Also, in informal Japanese “zen zen” means “not at all” and “muri” means impossible. People will say “zen zen muri” which technically means “not at all impossible” but actually is used to mean “completely impossible” and language mavens can squawk all they want about how it is either a double negative or a redundancy. I think I did myself when I was first learning the language and I was not woke to the way language works and expected it to *have* to conform to a prescriptive textbook. When I asked Japanese speakers of the sentence was self-contradictory they would indulge me and say “ha ha yes, I see what you mean but that isn’t the meaning of the sentence.” Of course double negatives are and were very common in everyday English and in various dialects of English today. They are rarely any more “ambiguous” than most “standard” or “metaphorical” English which most language mavens use unthinkingly knowing that their meaning can be understood well enough. |
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"The thief and the murderer follow nature just as much as the philanthropist. Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and the evil tendencies of man may have come about; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before." "Evolution and Ethics" T.H. Huxley (1893) |
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#139 |
NWO Cyborg 5960x (subversion VPUNPCKHQDQ)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Starship Wanderer - DS9
Posts: 12,631
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ModBorg ![]() ![]() Engine: Ibalgin 400 |
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#140 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 2,067
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I've never thought of that second 'nie' that way. I've only ever considered it as a kind of emphasis of the first one.
"Oral begin mans besef dat hulle nie fyn hoef te wees nie Dis nie aanvaarbaar om te huil nie Dis nie aanvaarbaar om te skeer nie En die enigste tyd toe ons nee se is as hulle vir ons vra of ons genoeg gehad het" |
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