Common English usage misconceptions: Difference between revisions

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* '''Misconception:''' ''"[[Litotes]]'' ''or [[double negation]] (sometimes called "[[Double negative|double negatives]]") are always incorrect."''

Some style guides use the term [[double negative]] to refer exclusively to the [[nonstandard dialect|nonstandard]] use of reinforcing negations ([[negative concord]], which is considered standard in some other languages), e.g., using "I don't [[Know Nothing|know nothing]]" to mean "I know nothing". But the term "double negative" can sometimes refer to the standard English constructions called [[litotes]] or nested negatives, e.g., using "He is not unhealthy" to mean "He is healthy". In some cases, nested negation is used to convey nuance, uncertainty, or the possibility of [[Three-valued logic|a third option]] other than a statement or its negation. For example, an author may write "I'm not unconvinced by his argument" to imply they find an argument persuasive, but not definitive.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/double-negative|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130627233213/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/double-negative|url-status = dead|archive-date = June 27, 2013|website = Lexico|publisher = Oxford|title = double negative}}</ref>

Some writers suggest avoiding nested negatives as a [[rule of thumb]] for clear and concise writing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-02-16 |title=Politics and the English Language {{!}} The Orwell Foundation |url=https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/ |access-date=2023-07-29 |website=www.orwellfoundation.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> Overuse of nested negatives can result in sentences that are difficult to parse, as in the sentence "I am not sure whether it is not true to say that the Milton who once seemed not unlike a seventeenth-century Shelley had not become[...]"