more negative mischief

[Laurence Horn]

>susan stamberg, on today's Morning Edition (NPR), remarked that ronald
>reagan "was not afraid to mince his words", thus piling on rather too
>much negation.

As W. B. Hodgson (1885)  [Errors in the Use of English; New York:
Appleton] p. 21 muttered gloomily a while back, "Piled-up negatives
prove easy stumbling-blocks."

>  "didn't mince his words" would have done.  "was not
>afraid to be outspoken" or "to speak clearly" would have done.  but
>this version has him fearlessly mincing his words.
>
>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

As Jerry would say (if I hadn't beaten him to it), a very nice syntactic blend.

Larry