Garrett Wollman writes: Not sure if this really belongs in LL's misnegation files, but I found this sentence hard enough to parse (despite knowing exactly what the author meant) that I stumbled over it on a re-read: "The really troubling thing," Zora says to the rain, "is that I can't convince myself I'm not in […]
From a recent article on the Vanity Fair site by Abigail Tracy ("'There's Blood on the Hands of Members of Congress': Frustrated Democrats Debate Strategy as Mitch McConnell Holds Gun Control in His Pocket," published Aug. 6): Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who was elected weeks before the 2012 mass shooting in Newton, Connecticut, expressed […]
Brian Costa, "Rory McIlroy’s British Open Chances Collapse on the First Hole", WSJ 7/18/2019 [emphasis added]: Rory McIlroy stepped into the first tee box at Royal Portrush on Thursday morning and waved to a roaring crowd. He knew it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience: his opening tee shot at the first British Open held in […]
Elizabeth Wydra, "Chief Justice John Roberts is under tremendous pressure", CNN 5/10/2019: As the Supreme Court strives to finish its work by the end of June — deciding on issues from the future of the census to the ability of politicians to draw their own legislative districts — the justices labor in their chambers at […]
From "How to Complain at a Restaurant? Just Ask Our Critic", NYT 2/5/2019: In general, the more specific your complaint, the more likely it is to be understood. The worst, most useless and potentially dangerous complaints are broad, sweeping condemnations. “There is complaining that makes you think about what you’re doing, and there is complaining […]
David Brooks, "It’s Not the Economy, Stupid: How to conduct economic policy in an age of social collapse", NYT 11/29/2018: People, especially in the middle- and working-class slices of society, are less likely to volunteer in their community, less likely to go to church, less likely to know their neighbors, less likely to be married […]
A tweet for the misnegation archive: Thousands march in Berlin to protest against anti-racism https://t.co/iNobKJd1Zb — South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) October 13, 2018 This one has the unusual property of being purely lexical, with no explicit negations at all. [h/t Donald Clarke]
In purely linguistic terms, of course. Paul Kane, "‘Kind of an irreplaceable void’: GOP wonders if anyone can seize the McCain mantle", WaPo 8/28/2018: Sen. Lindsey O. Graham tackled a question that many have asked since John McCain’s death Saturday: Who will fill the role of traditional conservative, particularly on national security, that has been […]
Following up on "Clarification by misnegation" and "More double negative jokes", here are some tweets I missed:
Interviewed by Jake Tapper on Friday about the indictment of 12 Russians by Robert Mueller's investigation, Michael Hayden said Your browser does not support the audio element. I would not be surprised if this were not the last indictment we see that- that doesn't mention an American So will there be one or more future filings, […]
Alex Isenstadt, "Trump warns supporters about 'really angry' Democrats", Politico 6/4/2018: President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon marked 500 days in office by grimly warning supporters that Democrats are motivated to turn out for the midterm elections — and that they’re “really, really angry.” During a national conference call with grassroots supporters to commemorate the […]
Undernegation of the week, from a reader down under — Jack Waterford, "AFP bloodhounds still just sniffing about", The Canberra Times 3/31/2018: The AFP raids were at the behest of the Registered Organisations Commission, which claims to have feared that the AWU might be in the process of destroying documents relevant to a civil investigation. […]