Racial epithet makes news

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/7/2010 03:12 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Banal statements are given an appearance of profundity by means of
>the not un- formation...It should be possible to laugh the not un
>formation out of existence...One can cure oneself of the not un
>formation by memorizing this sentence:  A not unblack dog was chasing
>a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field.
>=====
>
>To be sure, other stylists, going back to Erasmus, praise at least
>some double negatives as elegant and modest, and Orwell (whose own
>prose is rife with the construction he criticizes) is a bit unfair in
>choosing his examples in the above passage.

More than unfair.  Grammatical and ungrammatical, for example, are
exclusive (generally if not always).  But what is the color of
unblack or ungreen?  And (un)small can be grande or venti.

Joel

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