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<p>Hebrew also has the "not few" = "lots of" construction.</p>
<p>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".</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 25/01/2020 15:55, Olle Engstrand
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:8C3D0679-1903-4BE3-B9F8-AE6D0DAABA7A@ling.su.se">
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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.
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Best wishes,</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Olle E</div>
<div><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 25 Jan 2020, at 14:31, Gussenhoven, C.H.M.
(Carlos) <<a href="mailto:c.gussenhoven@let.ru.nl"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">c.gussenhoven@let.ru.nl</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<div class=""><font style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);
font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none;" class="" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt;" class="">
<div class="PlainText"><br class="">
To supply a case from colloquial British English:
''not half'', as in 'He wasn't half pleased',<br
class="">
'She didn't half like it' ('He was very pleased', 'She
liked it a lot').<br class="">
<br class="">
Best,<br class="">
Carlos<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br
class="">
________________________________________<br class="">
From: Lingtyp [<a
href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>]
on behalf of Johanna Laakso [<a
href="mailto:johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at</a>]<br
class="">
Sent: Saturday, 25 January, 2020 11:40 AM<br class="">
To: Bastian Persohn<br class="">
Cc:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br
class="">
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Ironic negative constructions<br
class="">
<br class="">
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:<br class="">
<br class="">
vähä(-ks) toi on hyvä<br class="">
scarcely(-Q) that is good<br class="">
‘that’s really good’<br class="">
<br class="">
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.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best<br class="">
Johanna<br class="">
<br class="">
Bastian Persohn <<a
href="mailto:persohn.linguistics@gmail.com" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">persohn.linguistics@gmail.com</a><<a
href="mailto:persohn.linguistics@gmail.com" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">mailto:persohn.linguistics@gmail.com</a>>>
kirjoitti 24.1.2020 kello 18.12:<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
Dear group members,<br class="">
<br class="">
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).<br class="">
<br class="">
Best regards,<br class="">
<br class="">
Bastian<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
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):<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
A-ka-se-m-hle lo mntwana<br class="">
NEG-SBJ.NEG.1-still-1-pretty PROX.1 1.child<br
class="">
'This child is so/very beautiful' (lit: 'This child is
no longer beautiful')<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
A-ni-sa-hlafun-i<br class="">
NEG-SBJ.2PL-still-chew-NEG<br class="">
'You are chewing so much/so loudly' (lit: 'You are no
longer chewing')<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
A-ndi-sa-dinw-anga<br class="">
NEG-SBJ.1SG-still-be(come)_tired-NEG.PFV<br class="">
'I am so/very tired.' (lit: 'I am not tired anymore')<br
class="">
<br class="">
Be-ndi-nge-minc-e<br class="">
REC.PST-SBJ.1SG-NEG-tense_up-PFV<br class="">
'I was so very tense' (lit: 'I was not tensed up')<br
class="">
<br class="">
A-yi-nints-i imi-buzo ya-m<br class="">
NEG-COP.4-many 4-question 4-POSS.1SG<br class="">
'My questions are so many' (lit: 'My questions are not
many')<br class="">
<br class="">
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.<br
class="">
<br class="">
Thanks!<br class="">
<br class="">
_______________________________________________<br
class="">
Lingtyp mailing list<br class="">
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class="" moz-do-not-send="true">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><<a
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class="" moz-do-not-send="true">mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>><br
class="">
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class="" moz-do-not-send="true">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><br
class="">
<br class="">
--<br class="">
Univ.Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso<br class="">
Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und
Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL)<br
class="">
Abteilung Finno-Ugristik<br class="">
Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7<br class="">
A-1090 Wien<br class="">
<a href="mailto:johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at</a><<a
href="mailto:johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">mailto:johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at</a>>
•<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/</a><br
class="">
Project ELDIA:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.eldia-project.org/" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.eldia-project.org/</a><br
class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
_______________________________________________<br
class="">
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class="" moz-do-not-send="true">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br
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</span></font></div>
</blockquote>
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<br class="">
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-556825895
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091</pre>
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