Thanks Link

[Kumaki]

I dunno.

I was in a college English class once, in Louisville, KY.  We had a guy in the class who had a terrible habit of using double negatives.

One day, toward the end of the period, the professor decided to set him...and the rest of us straight.

He said...in English...and most languages of the world...a double negative is, in fact, a positive.  In only three languages in the world - russian, Italian, and Yiddish - is a double negative not a positive...in fact, in those languages, said the professor - a double negative is, in fact, a IMPERATIVE NEGATIVE.

But, continued the professor....in no language on Earth is a double positive EVER a negative.

To which I replied....

Yeah....right!!

Needless to say, I broke the whole class up....even the professor had to laugh at that one.  I might mention I was carrying a 4.0 GPA at the time this happened.  And I kept my 4.0

 

[_wb_]

"Yeah right" is indeed a funny example of a double positive becoming negative, although I guess it's caused by the implied sarcasm (just the word "rrright..." can also be negative if pronounced sarcastically).

There are other languages where double negation is not an affirmation. In Afrikaans, you can say "moenie huil nie" (literally "must not cry not") and it would mean "don't cry". In fact, double negation is mandatory in Afrikaans.

Also in French double negation is very common: "ne ... pas" is the normal form to negate something, while both "ne" and "pas" are negative particles.

Even in English, especially in informal/spoken English, double negatives are often still negations: "I ain't got no computer", "We don't need no education / We don't need no thought control", etc.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative

 

[Binky]

Also in French double negation is very common: "ne ... pas" is the normal form to negate something, while both "ne" and "pas" are negative particles.

From what I learnt at GCSE, 'ne' must always be followed by a second negative particle.

Je ne foobare pas

Tu ne foobares rien

etc

If that's true then I would say that the ne...pas is a single (split) negation since Je ne foobare  and Tu foobares pas are both invalid.

Having said that, My French is very poor, so I'm sure some of the native speakers 'round here can correct me

 

[_wb_]

In modern spoken French, the "ne" is often left out, so "pas" alone is already sufficient for a negation. It's true that you can't use only "ne" though, although etymologically, "ne" is the word that means "not" while "pas" was optionally added for emphasis but didn't really mean "not" (it comes from Latin "passus" meaning "step"). I guess you could say that "ne ... pas" is a single negative particle consisting of two words, or a mandatory double negation, depending on your point of view.