On 3 Jan 2006, at 17:35, Philip Hazel wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, John W. Baxter wrote:
>
>> Your deny looks right, but I've been around computers for a long
>> time (since
>> 1957, not counting looking over work my mother brought home before
>> that),
>> and I *still* get into trouble combining negative tests. (I do
>> sometimes
>> get it right.)
>
> Humans just do not like combining negatives. Consider "I could not
> fail
> to disagree more." It takes a while to figure it out...
>
> --
> Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service
> Get the Exim 4 book: http://www.uit.co.uk/exim-book
>
perhaps this is why in italian it is quite common to have double
negative expressions that have the opposite of the logical meaning,
for example:
I don't know nothing... [non so nulla] to mean: I know nothing...
Likely this is why this expression, in english, is associated with
the italo-american slang...
Giuliano
