The 25 Rules of Grammar by Joseph Piercy

Author:Joseph Piercy [Piercy, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782432685
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books

‘We don’t need no education’

‘Another Brick In The Wall’, Pink Floyd

‘I can’t get no satisfaction’

‘Satisfaction’, The Rolling Stones

‘It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone’

‘It’s Not Unusual’, Tom Jones

To strictly apply the rules of double negation to any of the famous lines above would be to ruin the sentiment or sense in the songs. Is Mick Jagger saying, for instance, that he is actually satisfied all of the time and could do with a break? Are Pink Floyd being ironic and actually saying what ‘we need’ is more education of the harrowing variety depicted in the song? The lines sound much flatter and nondescript if corrected to ‘I can’t get any satisfaction’ or ‘It is usual to be loved by someone’.

It isn’t just in pop songs where the liberal use of double negatives seems to thrive unchecked, poets have long used the form without anybody batting an eyelid:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.