Re: double negatives (was "bad French")
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, October 14, 2000, 15:22 |
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En réponse à Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>:
>
> And OC I rather like the ne...pas, ne...jamais, ne...rien, etc.
> constructions in French.
>
They are not double negative constructions, simply negation is split in two
parts in French. Really 'pas', 'jamais', 'rien' had originally an affirmative
meaning (and sometimes still have, ex: Avez-vous *jamais* vu ça? Did you *ever*
see that?). They are taking now the negative meaning only when "ne" is not
around (and it usually disappears in speech because it's not stressed, unlike
the other part of the negation. That's also why a second part appeared
originally).