[319] in tlhIngan-Hol
RE: wa'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon May 18 18:24:12 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: "MAPLE::BANG" <BANG%MAPLE.decnet@pine.circa.ufl.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: 18 May 92 17:12:00 EST
in reply to the subject of double negatives:
(sorry, I'm doing this from home, so editing the message to which I'm replying
would be a long, sloow process, and therefore I cannot conveniently include
bits-n-pieces, but this was a posting by " ~mark ")
You have triggered something from my memory... my current roomate is studying
Russian, and he uses a phrase which, in english, is close to "nobody anywhere
ever does anything for anybody..." or some such. The proper Russian
translation, however, uses the negative form of just about every word in the
sentence (direct word translation would be "nobody nowhere never does nothing
for nobody ).... double negatives?? how about quintuple negatives!!! (and I
think I left a few out, even!!)
Now, perhaps my roomate is correct, or maybe he is totally wrong...
I dunno, but if he's right then there is precedent for multi-negatives used
to mean a negative, and not a positive.
I'll be very interested in seeing this information either supported
or shot down miserably by anyone who knows better...
...anybody? ...anybody? ...Bueller?
Larry
