The teacher said "In English a double negative forms a positive.
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Is it purely a programmer joke or also a sexist one?
What about:
A man sends his programmer wife to the grocery store for a loaf of bread...
On her way out he says "and if they have eggs, get a dozen". The programmer wife returns home with 12 loaves of bread and says: "They had eggs."
@sibrosan @kibcol1049 Of course it could be. Also husband and husband, wife and wife, spy and spy...
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@sibrosan @kibcol1049 Of course it could be. Also husband and husband, wife and wife, spy and spy...
@sibrosan @kibcol1049 Insert your poly and non-binary versions.
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English is my second language and phrases like
"we don't want no education"
always bother me.
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@Lily_and_frog @eleder @jack @Wolf_Baginski @kibcol1049 the ambiguity is part of the fun!
@OneInterestingFact @eleder @jack @Wolf_Baginski @kibcol1049
Yeah, right...
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The teacher said "In English a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."@kibcol1049
Be careful in Germany:
"yes, yes" means "kiss my ass".("Ja, ja" heißt "leck mich am Arsch".)
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@Lily_and_frog @eleder @jack @Wolf_Baginski The text book English language rules are different to the current spoken language trends. The meaning is usually clear when spoken even though grammatically incorrect. I feel sorry for non English speakers.
@kibcol1049 @eleder @jack @Wolf_Baginski
The difficulty with both double negatives and negative questions is definitely not limited to English!
Your joke definitely translates well in french (especially in québécois french)!
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"I don't know nuffin"
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The teacher said "In English a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."@kibcol1049 In American Ebonics double negatives denoting positive is a real rule (one of the rules that differentiates it from common american english). I really appreciate how language is living and is able to adjust to time, place, and context.
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@eleder @jack @Wolf_Baginski @kibcol1049
That's opening a totally different can of worm about how to respond to a negative question!!!
"Are you not finishing that?"
Does "yes" means "I will finish it" or "your statement is correct, I will not finish it".
I've learnt recently that French uses "si" (I will finish it) instead of "yes" (your statement is correct, i will not finish it) to answer a negative question. Native French speaker myself, I feel a bit ashamed about not knowing it before.
@Lily_and_frog @eleder @jack @Wolf_Baginski @kibcol1049
English used to have a 4 form system - Yes contradicts a negatively formulated question, No affirms it; Yea affirms a positively formulated question, Nay contradicts it.
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English is my second language and phrases like
"we don't want no education"
always bother me.
@rzeta0 @kibcol1049 It is a dialect form in the bits of the North of England that I grew up in. Maybe other parts of the UK too.
As in:
"We don't need nothing from you."
Which in more standard English would have been:
"We don't need anything from you.".
It has always seemed to me to be the interchangebility of anything/nothing and any/no as a reinforcement of the negative rather than necessarily a use of double negatives as is normally practiced in UK English.
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The teacher said "In English a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right." -
@sibrosan @kibcol1049 Of course it could be. Also husband and husband, wife and wife, spy and spy...
I think it is, in general, not that simple.
A joke like this starts out with setting a scene that sounds familiar enough for people to easily picture in their mind.
The humorous element is in the unexpected turn of events in the punch line.
For most people, the gender role reversal in my version will be already somewhat unexpected, which interferes with the punch line effect.
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@rzeta0 @kibcol1049 It is a dialect form in the bits of the North of England that I grew up in. Maybe other parts of the UK too.
As in:
"We don't need nothing from you."
Which in more standard English would have been:
"We don't need anything from you.".
It has always seemed to me to be the interchangebility of anything/nothing and any/no as a reinforcement of the negative rather than necessarily a use of double negatives as is normally practiced in UK English.
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This line is using a children choir and voicing the children's point of view, playing on the double meaning.
They say they don't need education in such a clunky way, confirming that they clearly need education.
@Lily_and_frog @rzeta0 @kibcol1049 I think you're missing the point entirely. it's not that they need education, it's that they're rejecting it.
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@kibcol1049 California has also triple positive meaning "No". But there "Yes" often means "No" like in "If you want..." (I'd do it for you) Or "Maybe". ("Not really")
"Oh yeah for sure, yes" and more are very typical there. And Bavarian has quadruple negatives that stay negative. "Naa, koane Masern hob I no nia net gehabt!" for example. stays negative, the speaker never has caught the measles. @chillicampari can confirm -
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The teacher said "In English a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right." -
@kibcol1049
Be careful in Germany:
"yes, yes" means "kiss my ass".("Ja, ja" heißt "leck mich am Arsch".)
@ard_the_rich @kibcol1049 I read it was believed that showing someone (or some entity) the naked butt was a magical protection. Like Bart Simpson: "eat my shorts!". Maybe germans are just lazy (or efficient) and shortened it to "yes, yes" to ward of evil.
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@Lily_and_frog @rzeta0 @kibcol1049 I think you're missing the point entirely. it's not that they need education, it's that they're rejecting it.
