double negatives

My entries to date have all been about the web. It's time to talk about writing, or in this case language in general.

I got a good laugh when I saw this cartoon on Facebook. Judging by how many different places it shows up in a Google image search, it has certainly made the rounds. And I am one of those who would initially agree with the perspective of the jurors.


Many experts in the English language would disagree with this interpretation of the defendant's statement, however. They point out that English is not math or logic, and a double negative can be used for emphasis.

In her video course English Grammar Boot Camp, the instructor, Anne Curzan, discusses double negatives in detail. Curzan says that while there are sentences in English where the negatives do in fact cancel each other out, a double, or multiple, negative is also frequently used for emphasis. Similar to “I didn’t do nuthin’” she uses the example, “We don’t have nothing to hide.” She says it is clear that the meaning is “We have nothing to hide,” and not “We have something to hide.”

Curzan points out that double negatives used for emphasis can be found in Chaucer. She tells us that you can find double negatives used for emphasis in Shakespeare as well. In As You Like It, Celia says: “I cannot go no further.”

She says that she has two answers when someone says, “But when you multiply two negatives you get a positive,” to support the idea that two negatives in a sentence cancel each other out.

1. “Language is not math.”
2. “OK fine, let’s do math. If you have two negatives in math and you add them, what do you get? You actually get a bigger negative.”

So if we listen to the defendant on the witness stand saying “I didn’t do nuthin’” I guess we’re actually going to have to acquit after all.