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From: CSvax:Pucc-H:aeq@pur-ee.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: Double negatives
Message-ID: <225@pucc-h>
Date: Tue, 23-Aug-83 03:04:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.225
Posted: Tue Aug 23 03:04:41 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Aug-83 19:53:46 EDT
References: <573@mit-eddie.UUCP>
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Here is an example where a double negative has a distinctly different meaning
from the non-negative:

"I am not sure that, as a conscientious detective, my first duty is not to
arrest the whole household."

-- Sherlock Holmes in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

If the "not"s are eliminated from that sentence, the meaning changes markedly.

-- Jeff Sargent