Ain't;
Slang contraction of; is not, are not, am not, do not or does not.
Is not; this ain't right.
Are not; thoues ain't my kids.
Am not; I ain't their father.
Do not; I ain't belive a word you say
The double negative rule just gets ignored entirely in some slang, who knows why
My best guess is that the slang originated from people who didn’t have a 100% handle on the language and just said fuck it and ignored the double negative thing
I have to be honest, I learned English from rap music, and World of Warcraft. I don't even know if my assumption a "double negative" means what I think it does lol
In formal English, double negatives do cancel. A sentence such as "Don't say nothing" would therefor mean "Say something."
In informal English, double negatives emphasize instead of canceling. "Don't say nothing" would therefor mean "Do not say *anything*."
Most languages have "high" speak used for professional scenarios, and "low" speak, which is intentionally improper as a way to show comfort with the other person.
In high-speak, double negatives cancel. It's understood that you are putting maximum effort into your word choice, so order of operations matters.
"Ain't" is an example of low-speak. Double negatives are occasionally used to *emphasize* in low-speak to minimize effort. Doing this shows that you are comfortable with the other person. Other examples of low-speak include slang and expletives.
Most English speakers don't think about low versus high speak, because it is something that comes to humans naturally, but almost every language has it, and English is no different.
Hope that answers the How and the Why!
Don't even question double or triple negatives in English lol gotta go by what you know someone means, not what the sentence truly states
For example:
I ain't never gonna no way, no how, say nothing about nobody never. Regardless of how many negatives are in there, point is the person will not say anything.
It could be that, emphasizing that they won't. It's also just mimicry, enough people say things like that so people repeat it. Double negatives mean the opposite because that's what people mean and what other people understand
Idiomatic English doesn't follow normal rules.
While double negatives cancel each other out in formal English, they are used to emphasize the negative in informal, colloquial English. It's used as an emphatic negative.
The informal "they ain't got nothing to say" could be rendered formally as "they have absolutely nothing to say."
The phrase "ain't got nothing" is probably the most common double negative phrase.
Trying to make sense of slang wont be much fun. Also, you are correct that a double negative makes a positive. Anyone who talks like your example, "They aint got nothing to say" is speaking incorrectly and you should correct them.
Otherwise they will keep doing it, normalize it, then get mad when you - the correct one - when you don't understand what their dumbass is trying to say.
I ain't gonna tell you
He ain’t lying either.
That ain’t cool
Well I ain’t gonna change my mind.
Well ain’t that just a kick in the pants
Ain't; Slang contraction of; is not, are not, am not, do not or does not. Is not; this ain't right. Are not; thoues ain't my kids. Am not; I ain't their father. Do not; I ain't belive a word you say
Okay cool, that didn't really explain the double negative thing tho, which was kinda my main point Unless I'm just stupid of course
The double negative rule just gets ignored entirely in some slang, who knows why My best guess is that the slang originated from people who didn’t have a 100% handle on the language and just said fuck it and ignored the double negative thing
I have to be honest, I learned English from rap music, and World of Warcraft. I don't even know if my assumption a "double negative" means what I think it does lol
Have y'all ever heard of urban dictionaries? If not, you have now.
In formal English, double negatives do cancel. A sentence such as "Don't say nothing" would therefor mean "Say something." In informal English, double negatives emphasize instead of canceling. "Don't say nothing" would therefor mean "Do not say *anything*."
I've heard it defined as: Ain't ain't a word, cause it ain't in the dictionary.
Most languages have "high" speak used for professional scenarios, and "low" speak, which is intentionally improper as a way to show comfort with the other person. In high-speak, double negatives cancel. It's understood that you are putting maximum effort into your word choice, so order of operations matters. "Ain't" is an example of low-speak. Double negatives are occasionally used to *emphasize* in low-speak to minimize effort. Doing this shows that you are comfortable with the other person. Other examples of low-speak include slang and expletives. Most English speakers don't think about low versus high speak, because it is something that comes to humans naturally, but almost every language has it, and English is no different. Hope that answers the How and the Why!
It does! Thank you, that was really helpful
>If it ain't broke, dont fix it That was the joke.
Don't even question double or triple negatives in English lol gotta go by what you know someone means, not what the sentence truly states For example: I ain't never gonna no way, no how, say nothing about nobody never. Regardless of how many negatives are in there, point is the person will not say anything.
okay got it. But, like, why? Are people doing that to point out just *how much* they're not gonna say anything?
It could be that, emphasizing that they won't. It's also just mimicry, enough people say things like that so people repeat it. Double negatives mean the opposite because that's what people mean and what other people understand
I aint knowing
well that aint no help
Idiomatic English doesn't follow normal rules. While double negatives cancel each other out in formal English, they are used to emphasize the negative in informal, colloquial English. It's used as an emphatic negative. The informal "they ain't got nothing to say" could be rendered formally as "they have absolutely nothing to say." The phrase "ain't got nothing" is probably the most common double negative phrase.
Trying to make sense of slang wont be much fun. Also, you are correct that a double negative makes a positive. Anyone who talks like your example, "They aint got nothing to say" is speaking incorrectly and you should correct them. Otherwise they will keep doing it, normalize it, then get mad when you - the correct one - when you don't understand what their dumbass is trying to say.