in reply to Re^2: Untillian Headache or about the semantic of until
in thread Untillian Headache or about the semantic of until
In italian the double negation is admitted and correct:
I don't speak Italian, but I do note the OP said:
In italian the double negation is admitted and correct:
I do know that in English, there are some sentiments that cannot be adequately captured without a double negation: Eg.
I like toast. does not fully capture the semantics of I don't not like toast. (Or perhaps more grammatically correct; I don't dislike toast.)
I cannot attempt to divine the true sentiments of the double negation in a language I do not speak; but from my limited experience of other non-English languages that have constructions that make little or no sense when translated literally to English, I know that often such constructions are perfectly logical in that language.
Eg. When speaking English, a Dutch person (who are usually very competent in English) will often say "When you were a woman..." instead of "If you were a woman ..." and conversely, "If the baby is born ... " when they actually mean "When the baby is born ...". It all comes down to the duality of the Dutch words 'als'.
Similarly, expressing 8:35 in English as 5 minutes past half an hour before 9:00 makes no sense at all; but that is exactly how it is commonly expressed in Dutch: vijf over half negen.
Which I read as "I will wait until you have not arrived".
Basically, your attempts to apply non-native logic to a language you do not speak doesn't make for a sound basis of argument.
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Re^4: Untillian Headache or about the semantic of until
by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Feb 11, 2013 at 17:38 UTC | |
Re^4: Untillian Headache or about the semantic of until
by salva (Canon) on Feb 11, 2013 at 16:59 UTC | |
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Feb 11, 2013 at 17:10 UTC | |
by choroba (Cardinal) on Feb 11, 2013 at 17:41 UTC | |
Re^4: Untillian Headache or about the semantic of until
by RonW (Parson) on Apr 04, 2016 at 22:33 UTC |