[Ads-l] Hypernegation in the Times

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jan 22, 2017, at 6:13 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> This is something I've been wondering about. Is is possible (likely) that
> for some people "deny" is developing a sense 'state a negative'? I.e.,
> "deny X" would be equivalent to "say X", with the requirement that X is a
> negative statement.

Hard to distinguish this from Jespersen's blend analysis:  “deny that p” + “state that not-p” —> “deny that not-p”.  The result, as in the Shakespeare quote at the bottom of this page (which I borrow from Jespersen’s classic, and now 100-year-old, paper “Negation in English and Other Languages”), is a frequent take on hypernegation more generally, as in “I miss not seeing you around” (“miss V-ing” + regret not V-ing) or “No one is too poor not to own an automobile” (“too poor to” + “so poor that not…”) or “Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t rain” (see various Language Log posts).

While, as I say, the reanalysis suggestion Mark makes and the blend analysis make similar predictions, they make different claims about what’s in the speaker’s head.  If a given speaker always uses “deny” with a negative complement to mean “deny that p” (= “claim that not-p”) rather than “deny that not-p” (= “claim that p”), there has been a change in the lexicon for at least that speaker.  

LH  
> 
> 
> On Jan 19, 2017 12:16 PM, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
>>> On Jan 19, 2017, at 12:08 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Now fixed online, though Mark Liberman was able to screenshot the
>> original
>>> on Google News.
>>> 
>>> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=30492
>> 
>> I’m not surprised--indeed, Mark’s quick strike capacity is why I cc’d him
>> on my post.  I figured the hypernegation wouldn’t be around indefinitely,
>> whether or not Mr. Sessions is.
>> 
>> But was he able to screenshot the original, or to screenshoot it?
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 8:16 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> “I am not sure women or people with different sexual orientations face
>>>> that kind of discrimination. I just don’t see it,” Mr. Sessions said,
>>>> denying that he was not anti-gay or anti-women.
>>>> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/civil-
>>>> rights-justice-department-donald-trump.html
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> (Called to my attention by Paul Postal)
>>>> 
>>>> (Cf. "First he denied you had in him no right." [Comedy of Errors
>> IV.ii])
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
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