{"id":1128,"date":"2020-05-11T10:27:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T09:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2020-10-28T16:26:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T15:26:26","slug":"well-i-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/?p=1128&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Well I never!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Richard Peters<\/em><\/p>\n

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, where one could venture beyond the self-isolationist quarantine of one\u2019s own four walls without fear of contamination, a colleague of mine visited a local brewery here in Munich, where she was greeted by the sight of a beer mat on which were inscribed the immortal words:<\/p>\n

Bei uns hod no nia ned koana koa Bier ned drunga!<\/p>\n

This piqued not only her thirst but also her linguistic interest. After picking her way through the heavily accented Bavarian dialect to distill the meaning of this phrase, she realised that the message itself was somewhat banal \u2013 clich\u00e9d, even, in a brewery setting: \u201cNo-one has ever not drunk beer here!\u201d<\/p>\n

But to cut to the informational chase in this way is, of course, to shatter the charm of the slogan, which consists precisely in its baroque, convoluted evocation of olde-worlde, simpler times \u2013 ur-Bavarian times, if you will, when laughing with friends and drinking beer were all that mattered.<\/p>\n

My colleague quickly pushed these melancholy thoughts aside \u2013 no doubt with the aid of a goodly helping of said fermented beverage \u2013 to ruminate on what exactly was going on with this statement. HOW many negatives? And yet still it manages to somehow warm the heart? Artfully articulated tidings indeed!<\/p>\n

There are fully five negative forms in play here: \u201cno nia\u201d (never yet); \u201cned\u201d (not), \u201ckoana\u201d (nobody), \u201ckoa\u201d (no), and another \u201cned\u201d (not) for good measure. How is it that the human mind can fight through all this negativity and grasp the intended idea \u2013 that beer is good and popular \u2013 without dismay? Perhaps this is a uniquely Bavarian talent?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The English language abhors multiple negatives. Or so we\u2019ve been led to believe ever since Robert Lowth, an 18th-century English bishop and scholar, wrote in his 1762 A Short Introduction to English Grammar<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo negatives in English destroy one another, or equivalent to an affirmative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Lowth\u2019s dedication to grammar was matched only by his love of criticising other people\u2019s usage \u2013 even that of renowned authors and playwrights \u2013 based on nothing but his own preference. As the Johnson column in an issue of The Economist<\/em><\/a> earlier this year puts it, \u201cLowth is considered responsible for some of the hoariest non-rules of the English language \u2013 proscriptions that were invalid even when he wrote them, but which have nonetheless been imposed on schoolchildren since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writers of modern English are now stuck with shibboleths like \u201cnever end a sentence with a preposition\u201d (another of Lowth\u2019s gems) and an almost moral expectation that we will avoid using more than one negative element to express negation \u2013 even though such usage is absolutely natural in spoken English as it is in the speech and writing of many other languages. I don\u2019t never need no Bavarian blood in me to not drink no beer without none of them negatives no more!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair bet that, were we miraculously to transport our 18th-century friend to modern-day central Europe, he would turn his principled grammarian\u2019s nose up at the inspired Bavarian advertising claim that so tickled my colleague\u2019s fancy. Luckily, that is a truly fantastical prospect; sadly, so is any thought \u2013 at present \u2013 of visiting the brewery myself to investigate.<\/p>\n

Of course, like matter and antimatter, the double negative, which equals a positive, has a theoretical opposite, the double positive, which ought to equal a negative, but cannot exist in nature. In this, language is no different from maths: everyone who paid attention at school will know that if you multiply two negative numbers together you always end up with a positive result. And so it is with language, isn\u2019t it? There\u2019s simply no such thing as a double positive! Yeah, right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, language doesn\u2019t behave the way we\u2019re taught it should. Double negatives are a case in point: why does English avoid them in writing but embrace them in speech? Richard Peters shares some thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[268,426,425],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/1176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}