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Subject:
Re: Some gramatical red meat
From:
Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:43:13 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
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Paul,
    One of my favorite songs from the sixties is "I ain't got no home,"
originally by Clarence (Frogman) Henry, but later covered by the Band.
    Consider "I haven't got a clue" in comparison to "I don't have a
clue."  "Get" has a large range of meanings, including obtaining and
having.

Craig>


Actually, I was thinking that it would still be a semantic error without
> the
> double negative: "I ain't got any" would mean, "I am not got any." "Be" is
> the
> wrong verb (and "got," I guess, is also "non-standard").
>
> Paul
>  "If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an
> improbable
> fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dick Veit <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Sun, August 22, 2010 9:31:32 AM
> Subject: Re: Some gramatical red meat
>
> Paul,
>
> Do you mean a mathematical error, in that in math, a negative of a
> negative is a
> positive? But of course language isn't math, and multiple negatives are
> used in
> countless languages as reinforcers of negativity. (For a wealth of
> examples, see
> the Wikipedia entry.) Multiple negatives were standard in earlier forms of
> English and in the modern dialects in which they are currently used
> present no
> semantic problems to speakers whatever.
>
> Dick
>
> "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges."
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 6:48 AM, Paul E. Doniger <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> John,
>>
>>"I ain't got none" is also a semantic error, isn't it? -- "I am (are/is)
>> not got
>>none."
>>
>>
>>Paul
>> "If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an
>> improbable
>>fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
>>
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