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Admin
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I cannot fail to refuse to disagree with you less.
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What, you never had wheelbarrow fucking when you were a kid???
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For anyone still struggling with it:
I can't resist not sharing... I cannot resist not sharing... I must not share... or I am compelled not to share...
A double negative (not not) simply cancels out, but only when they are next to each other. In this case, resist is between them, so we must make use of antonyms... eg
resist - must/compelled share/reveal - keep silent/conceal
Double negatives are simple if you pay attention to which word must be inverted to cancel the negative.
(Now apostrophes on the other hand...)
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I'm starting to like Belgium: http://www.nee-antwerpen.be/index-eng.htm [I'm not sure if the above link is work-safe] here's a fragment:
Admin
Actually, in English, two negations cancel out. This isn't the rule in all languages, the phrase "Non parlo mai italiano" in Italian translated word-for-word means "I don't never speak Italian" which in English we understand to be the same as "I speak Italian", although Italians actually understand the the double negative as being emphatically negative, i.e. "I NEVER speak Italian." It would be equally valid to just say "Non parlo italiano," which would simply mean, "I don't speak Italian."
You are correct that the double-negative isn't exactly the same as the zero-negative though. Although the meaning is the same, double negatives can be used effectively to take away the certainty or pointedness of a statement, as in, "I would not say we never make mistakes." This is a weaker version of "We make mistakes."
Of course, this is only useful in creative writing and PR doublespeak. For most kinds of expository writing (journalism, business literature, documentation, etc.) it is recommended to avoid these constructs...similar to how we discourage the passive voice, 3rd person genderless signular ("it") in the nominative, or chain together independent clauses excessively. There's nothing gramatically wrong with any of these things, they are just viewed as weak or quirky writing, and in day-to-day life most of us would like to to be lucid and direct.
Where the hell did tags go?
Tagged with: beating a dead horse
Addendum (2007-05-29 15:26): Edit: If you say something like "can not not" (keep in mind "can't" and "cannot" are just useful contractions of "can" and "not"), then that's just nonsense. Most words in English aren't meant to appear multiple times in the same sentence with the same purpose. It's just incorrect grammar.
As part of the point I was trying to make, we can all parse it and attempt to understand what it means, but technically it's not good English. If you use it, you should be aware that you're breaking the rule and have a good reason for it. In expository writing, your best option is to simply rephrase using stronger language.
"I (can't resist) (not sharing)" can be restated as, "I (can capitulate) to (not sharing)," or "I (can't resist) (keeping this to myself)." I used parentheses to show which phrases I was exchanging.
This is not what Alex meant, and the only reason we know this is because of the huge amount of context we have as regular readers, knowing what we know about this site's purpose and Alex's writing style.
Admin
What??? You never bent your friends over after playing on the slide and swingset with them all afternoon??? Maybe that's just a brooklyn tradition ;)
whatpushesmybuttons.wordpress.com
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Admin
Apparently somebody thought it'd be fun to digg this. It's hit the front page over there.
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At least they can always get a job as SLOW Men Working. :)
Admin
Assuming they get in the way of oncoming traffic, they probably are one or the other... Of course, they could just be emo.
Admin
you should add that photo to flickr and put it one of the bad signs groups
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If anyone is interested, FF shows, among other cookies, two cookies called HPDISPALL; one is for "Host: worsethanfailure.com", Content is "N"; the other is for "Domain: .worsethanfailure.com" (note the dot), Content is "Y". Deleting both solves the problem.
I'll just blame this on the crappy forum software... :)
(For the record, I do still prefer to get redirected via thedailywtf.com - but what does that have to do with these cookies?)
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Having spent a great deal of time in Belgium over the years, I can tell you that they really are a fun-loving bunch.
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Nice...
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http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wheelbarrel
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wheelbarrel races...no...wheelbarrow races...yes
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As several people later on in the listserv conversation note, the actual "double-positive" rejoinder was "yeah, yeah", and it was uttered by Sidney Morganbesser, a beloved philosophy professor at Columbia.
If you have access to NYTimes Select, you can read an account in Morganbesser's obituary from a few years ago: http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F10717F63C580C778CDDA10894DC404482
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this is the sort of shit i live for... good job!
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You wish. Anyone coming from Digg doesn't get laid.
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NO What's not on first.
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With some combinations of redirect techniques and cookie settings, some browsers don't send cookies to the server when they should.
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(BTW what is "want's"?)
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Admin
But "mai" could also be translated as "ever". You just can't interpret this word in the English sense.
I don't. I understand it as "I never speak Italian" or "I don't ever speak Italian." (But I'm not a native speaker. I know many languages. So, maybe, I see things differently than you do.) Then, how does one say non-emphatically "I never speak Italian"? Is it grammatical to say "Parlo mai italiano"?BTW, I'd translate "Non parlo mai italiano" as "I never ever speak Italian." That's the English way of emphasizing "never". No need to use SHOUTING.
Equally valid, but not semantically equal. Unless you want to tell me "I don't speak Italian" means the same thing as "I never (ever) speak Italian".Admin
lmaooooo. my kind of date! lmao. :P
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Dude, you should have taken a picture of the kids playing on that playground... although it may have been illegal to post it.
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it is quite right.
he could have resisted, but did not want to ;)
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That kids gettin corn holed... is that supposed to happen in a park?
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they stopped using that sign around here for a long time now (most likely for this reason).
At least in the provence of Antwerp where im from.
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Look up Perl on Google maps. It's slightly north of Apach.
-Sin Tax
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Actually, "I couldn't resist not sharing" is very explicit: It means that the subject found it difficult to resist the urge to not share. In other words, he had an overwhelming urge to keep the image to himself. Ergo, its meaning runs contrary to the intended context, which pressumably was that the subject had an overwhelming urge to share the image.
Engrish. Its what's for dinner. -dZ.
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It's one of the things Belgians seem to like a lot.
See: http://bruxelles.blog.de/
What they don't seem to like is spending too much time making sure things work the way they should, but that's an entirely different story ;-)
Da' Man (Currently in Belgium)
Admin
Well, not really. [...and there is another oddity of English, because the preceding IS a "soft not"] The formulation "can not" in English is actually the direct negation of "can", rather than an a capacity to negate. It actually requires vocal inflection to indicate the latter, and in such cases, we generally use "could", which is somewhat ambiguous in writing:
"I could not do that" Pronounced evenly, would indicated inability. "I could (not do that)" with the right pauses and tone, would indicate that I have an option to not choose to do that.
WTF! Things like this really accentuate just how idiomatic my native language is.
Admin
Thanks, Ronald. I thought that I remembered something like that, out of the deep recesses of the past. It's been awhile, since my one term of Russian was thirty-one years ago.
Admin
The sign makes perfect sense. It's a park sign btw, not playground: there are trees so you can walk, playground for kids, room for wheel barrel races (prolly some kind of activity centre for kids is in the park) and the big figure is intended to be someone having fun. Only thing wrong here is the fact that the wheel barrel racer is holding his "wheel barrel" very suspiciously...
Btw i am from Belgium, not Brussels though, Brussels sucks, it's like the place where the world sends it stupid people.... I haven't seen that sign anywhere else in Belgium.
Admin
The Real WTF is that so many people on this thread have no concept correct english.
Huh?
"I can't not help her out, she's a friend" is perfectly good grammar.
Or if you want to be pedantic... "Had she had had her help, it would have had been different."
Really?I'd say these two phrases we're both good grammar with completely different implied meaning. "I couldn't not go there" "I had to go there"
Perhaps a better example would be "I couldn't not help her." "I had to help her."
The former structure indicates inability to otherwise, the latter a compulsion to do.
Not quite ... it actually restates to "I (must capitulate) to (not sharing)" ... the different is important. "can capitulate" suggests a choice. "must capitulate" and "can't resist" infer compulsion.
It's not what Alex meant because his statement contradicts the obvious fact of being said. No further context is needed.
And I really should point out that arguing about correct english has only 2 results: Being wrong and looking like an ass.
Thus I think I shall end this post before I commit more of either :P
Admin
It's things like that which make me so glad there are order of precedent rules for math expression interpretation. ^_^
Captcha: craaazy ... yup, that it is.
Admin
And I thought I was the only one!
(who misread the sign, not the only slow child ... stupid English grammar ...)
Admin
It's even more interesting to see it in Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Fucking+Tarsdorf,+Braunau+am+Inn,+Upper+Austria,+Austria&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.240201,82.265625&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=48.06767,12.862415&spn=0.020017,0.040169&z=15&om=1
It seems like no matter which way you choose, you can't flee it.
Admin
Pedobear is watching.
Admin
Crank, most of use would rather like to be somewhere else. Bali for example, or Hawaii. Yet, we were called to Brussels, because the companies can't find enough skilled local people. Shouldn't that make you think?
Capcha: doom - kind of fits.
Admin
If you want a belgian sign with bullet holes in it:
[image]It's located at the southern border to Luxembourg.
Admin
You might also want to consider that such interpretations greatly depend on the language you are using. A negation of a verb in one may have a different meaning than in another. For instance, if you learn english as a german speaker you will notice that both languages have a lot in common. However this presumed similarity misleads some germans. Often you will see people making mistakes as they literaly translate or perceive said or written things.
For instance a typical and common misunderstanding: if an english speaker says "must not" a german may be tempted to think of it as "muss nicht" (muss = must, nicht = not). While in english the meaning is basically the same as "may not" or "is not allowed to" the phrase "muss nicht" should rather be translated with "do not have to". The idea is that the necessity (=must) does not exist, thus "one does not have to do sth.". The english rather thinks of it as that the necessity is turned around my the negation, thus "is not allowed to do sth.".
If you look at the other way around, "muss nicht" has the meaning of "do not need to". This is intelligible if you rephrase "must" to "need to" or "have to". So "muss nicht" (as opposed to "must not") means "to not have to" or "to not need to". Thus it expresses the lack of necessity instead of a forbiddance.
In other words we are prone to use the semantics of our own language instead of an unbiased one (if such exists at all). Then again it all depends on the common use of words instead of their literal meaning. In your example "I could not resist" is - also in an english context - commonly perceived as "I (could not) resist" instead of " I could (not resist).
As for the double negation, there are basically two types of applications in most languages. One is logical in nature the other colloquial (where a double negation expresses an emphasised negation).
So, "I couldn't resist not sharing" is most likely to be understood as "I could resist sharing". But if you said "I must not resist not sharing", it would probably mean that (a) you have trouble with the english language and also (b) that "I am not allowed to resist not sharing" and thus "I may resist sharing". So far for the logical interpretation.
As for colloquial interpreation of the double negation you need to decide that depending on the context. Example: When you hear someone say "My family tree ain't don't fork" you know you are talking to a redneck.
cheers & thank you for letting me screw with your brain
Admin
hahahaha...
It proves that belgian aren't sexual maniac :D
haem... ok ok, maybe ^^
Nathalie (a belgian girl ^^)
Admin
Wow! They sure know how to party in Brussels!!