Racial epithet makes news

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:29 PM -0400 7/7/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>  I should also note that I /habitually/ use the combination "there is
>no reason not to X", although it may be the only double-negative in my
>normal repertoire (unless I want to specifically highlight the double
>negation--as I have just done with a spit infinitive).
>
>     VS-)

I like the "spit infinitive" (not to be confused with "spit ('n')
image"), but are you really claiming you don't have e.g. "not
unhappy" in your normal repertoire?

LH

>
>On 7/7/2010 1:06 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>On Jul 7, 2010, at 9:48 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>
>>>... I give no discount for ignorance. There is no reason to call someone on
>>>a stupid statement just because he's unaware of it being offensive.
>>POTENTIAL UNDERNEGATION ALERT!
>>
>>i'm pretty sure Victor meant what i would frame as "There is no
>>reason not to call someone on a stupid statement just because ..."
>>
>>note that Victor's version has an explicit negation. in "no reason
>>INF" and, in "call someone on X", an idiom with negative tone
>>(similar to "object to X"), so maybe for some people that's enough
>>negativity to go around.  that is,  maybe this one has become
>>conventionalized for some people.
>>
>>arnold
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org