[Lingtyp] Ironic negative constructions

Sat Jan 25 14:54:07 UTC 2020

Hebrew also has the "not few" = "lots of" construction.

In my view, though, the "not few" and "not half" constructions do not 
fall within the scope of the "ironic negation" phenomenon. Unlike cases 
of ironic negation, these are actually true under their literal 
interpretation.  Saying "not few" for "lots of" is a case of two 
negations resulting in a positive, except that while one negation is 
overt, the other is implicit within the restrictive, or 
non-upwards-entailing quantifier "few".

On 25/01/2020 15:55, Olle Engstrand wrote:
> and in Swedish, "inte lite,” (not little): Han var  inte lite nöjd” 
> (He liked it a lot). ”Lite” must be stressed, lacking stress on lite, 
> the phrase is meaningless.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Olle E
>
>> On 25 Jan 2020, at 14:31, Gussenhoven, C.H.M. (Carlos) 
>> <c.gussenhoven at let.ru.nl <mailto:c.gussenhoven at let.ru.nl>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> To supply a case from colloquial British English: ''not half'', as in 
>> 'He wasn't half pleased',
>> 'She didn't half like it' ('He was very pleased', 'She liked it a lot').
>>
>> Best,
>> Carlos
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Lingtyp [lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org 
>> <mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>] on behalf of 
>> Johanna Laakso [johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at 
>> <mailto:johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at>]
>> Sent: Saturday, 25 January, 2020 11:40 AM
>> To: Bastian Persohn
>> Cc:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org 
>> <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Ironic negative constructions
>>
>> Just an anecdotal example from certain registers of colloquial 
>> Finnish: vähä(n) ‘few, a little, scarcely’ in the meaning ‘very much 
>> indeed’, also in connection with a specific word order pattern and 
>> optionally marked as a (rhetoric) question:
>>
>> vähä(-ks) toi   on hyvä
>> scarcely(-Q) that is  good
>> ‘that’s really good’
>>
>> I wouldn't be surprised to find more or less established ironic uses 
>> of negative markers or low-quantity quantifiers in colloquial 
>> registers in other languages, too.
>>
>> Best
>> Johanna
>>
>> Bastian Persohn <persohn.linguistics at gmail.com 
>> <mailto:persohn.linguistics at gmail.com><mailto:persohn.linguistics at gmail.com>> 
>> kirjoitti 24.1.2020 kello 18.12:
>>
>>
>> Dear group members,
>>
>> I am posting the below on behalf of a student of mine. Any input will 
>> be greatly appreciated, be it on similar conventionalized uses of 
>> negation and irony in other languages of the world, general thoughts, 
>> or even specific remarks regarding isiXhosa (or the larger Nguni 
>> branch of Bantu).
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Bastian
>>
>>
>> I would like some help with finding resources/getting more 
>> information on ironic negative constructions, which are a rather 
>> frequent device in isiXhosa (Bantu, South Africa). I’m not sure if 
>> they go by any other name, I found this term in Oosthuysen’s (2016) 
>> Grammar of isiXhosa. He describes it as “The use of a grammatical 
>> negative to convey a predicate with an emphatic positive 
>> connotation”. So, these constructions read as negative statements but 
>> in actual fact mean the opposite. The prosody is different which 
>> helps in realising that it’s the ironic negative. Here are some 
>> examples (numbers indicate noun classes, FV is the default final 
>> vowel morpheme):
>>
>>
>> A-ka-se-m-hle lo mntwana
>> NEG-SBJ.NEG.1-still-1-pretty PROX.1 1.child
>> 'This child is so/very beautiful' (lit: 'This child is no longer 
>> beautiful')
>>
>>
>> A-ni-sa-hlafun-i
>> NEG-SBJ.2PL-still-chew-NEG
>> 'You are chewing so much/so loudly' (lit: 'You are no longer chewing')
>>
>>
>> A-ndi-sa-dinw-anga
>> NEG-SBJ.1SG-still-be(come)_tired-NEG.PFV
>> 'I am so/very tired.' (lit: 'I am not tired anymore')
>>
>> Be-ndi-nge-minc-e
>> REC.PST-SBJ.1SG-NEG-tense_up-PFV
>> 'I was so very tense' (lit: 'I was not tensed up')
>>
>> A-yi-nints-i imi-buzo ya-m
>> NEG-COP.4-many 4-question 4-POSS.1SG
>> 'My questions are so many' (lit: 'My questions are not many')
>>
>> Any input in the form of papers, books, tiny excerpt, noting that it 
>> you’ve encountered a similar thing in another language etc would be 
>> of great help.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
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>> --
>> Univ.Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
>> Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- 
>> und Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL)
>> Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
>> Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7
>> A-1090 Wien
>> johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at 
>> <mailto:johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at><mailto:johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at> 
>> •http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/
>> Project ELDIA:http://www.eldia-project.org/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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-- 
David Gil

Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
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