Shifting negative

[Seán Fitzpatrick]

I recently found myself saying to someone who had arrived for a reception at
1:30 and been told that nothing was happening:  “I don’t think we got back
from the cemetery until a little after 2”.  

Of course, I meant just the opposite.  I DO in fact think that we got back
after 2.  But any speaker of colloquial English would take my meaning, viz.,
<<I think we didn’t get back from the cemetery until a little after 2>>.

 

Is there a name for this, and is it part of a more general pattern related
to the shifty effect some words have on negatives, e.g., until, anymore?

Seán Fitzpatrick
Violence may not solve things, but it can sure as hell settle them.

 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org