Creative overnegation
Today's Zits: …plus the obligatory link to the Misnegation Archive.
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Not widely under-negated
Steve Benen, "The challenge of governing in a party of ‘knuckleheads’", MSNBC 11/12/2014: Two months later, the good news for the Speaker is that his majority has reached new heights. The bad news, the influx of knuckleheads will make Boehner’s job more difficult in ways that are not widely under-appreciated.
They haven't proven they're not afraid of anyone not named Bumgarner. Or have they?
Bob Nightengale, "Forget 1985, these Royals on verge of their own history", USA Today 10/29/2014: It's been a wild ride for these two teams. They had to win an elimination game as a wild-card entrant just to get into this dance. Now, one will be hoisting the World Series championship trophy. The Royals certainly haven't […]
Failure not to make payment
From Dick Margulis, for the misnegation files: The source is a Facebook post, which you may or may not be able to read. Another picture of a similar sign is here or here — slightly different wording and line-division, same extra "not".
The things neither of them don't do
Charlie C. writes: “There are countless things neither the iPhone 6 nor the 6 Plus don’t do” [link] Huh?? Does this say what we know it means? I’m still in a loop on this one. Every time I read it I grind to a halt. I could go to the Wikipedia and […]
Should we stop people from not doing this?
Jack Healy, "Defying Death in Utah Arches: A Thrill Too Far?", NYT 7/30/ 2014: Even though his son died trying to swing, Mr. Stocking said he opposed any closing. “You can’t legislate people from not having fun,” he said. “They’re going to go find it one way or another.”
I wouldn't be surprised if few have yet to realize this
Lauren Collins, "Haiku Herman", New Yorker 3/31/2014: When asked later about the role that poetry had played in Kiev's Independence Square — protesters waved portraits of the nineteenth-century poet Taras Shevchenko — Van Rompuy said, "I wouldn't be surprised if this struggle and this tragedy had not inspired people there." Sometimes, as in that example, […]
The Estimation Game
More than 30 years ago, the famous linguist Mark Aronoff joined Lila Gleitman and others who have gotten under-/over-estimating upside down– "Automobile Semantics", Linguistic Inquiry 1981:
When adding is subtracting
"In the Unverified Digital World, Are Journalists and Bloggers Equal?", Slashdot 3/24/2014: As the source of news moves increasingly away from traditional channels to the millions of people carrying mobile phones and sharing commentary, photos and video on social networks, the distinction between journalists and bloggers has become increasingly blurred. Making sense of this type […]
"Impossible to understate" again
MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews 2/26/2014: Your browser does not support the audio element. It's been uh nearly impossible to understate the far right's hatred of President Obama's health care law.
The flood that no one has been unable to stem
That would be the flood of misnegations… John Shinal, "Analysis: Will too many cooks spoil a Microsoft revival?", USA Today 2/14/2014: Nokia and Microsoft have both been drowned out in a market flood that neither Elop nor anyone at Microsoft, including outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer, has been unable to stem. [Tip of the hat to […]
By far one of the best
From reader GW: If a misnegation contains conflicting indicators of polarity, what is an expression that contains conflicting indicators of intensity? I’ve been noticing expressions containing the ngram “by far one of the” followed by a superlative. COCA has twelve of them. A typical example is “I mean, it was by far one of the […]
That missing lack of magnanimity
Chris Matthews on Hardball, 11/7/2013 (about 5:36 into the segment), complaining about Republican politicians complaining about Chris Christie: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] and then he- the other guy, Cruz- going at it, Cruz was doing the same thing, saying he didn't battle for principle, because he allowed a- a state of New […]