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#187550 11/01/09 03:04 PM
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zmjezhd Offline OP
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I was looking at Robert of Gloucester's Metrical Chronicle (ca.1330 CE), especially the earlier bits he cribbed from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniæ. I was struck by this passage especially:
Quote:
Þo biþoȝte vortiger · mest of alle þinge ·
Hou he miȝte do quoyntelucost · þat he him sulf were king ·
Vor þat was alwei is þoȝt · & þeruore the monek he nom ·
To be king vor he was nyce · & ne couþe no wisdom ·

Then Vortigern understood; above all things;
How he might carry out most cunningly; that he himself were king;
For that was always his thought; and therefore he took the monk;
to be king because he was foolish; and he knew not no wisdom;
Here we have nice meaning 'foolish' and a full-blown double negative.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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þ that the character meaning th? Funny. : -)

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Love the thread title, Nuncle, and I'm sure Faldage will love the last line as much as I do. Thanks for posting it.

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niþ


formerly known as etaoin...
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But can we count it as a full-blown double negative when 'no' in the modernized version clearly equals 'any'?

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Originally Posted By: Jackie
But can we count it as a full-blown double negative when 'no' in the modernized version clearly equals 'any'?


Sure we can. We replaced the no with the any because we got bullied into thinking negative harmony was wrong.

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negative harmony I love it! laugh

Edit: that means the notes below the tonic, right?

Last edited by Jackie; 11/03/09 03:05 AM.
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I couldn't find any non-musical hits when I googled it but I can't believe I coined the term. Maybe Nuncle Z could help me out here.

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zmjezhd Offline OP
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I couldn't find any non-musical hits when I googled it but I can't believe I coined the term.

No help here. I knew what you meant by harmony. When I googled with the following, "negative harmony" -music -tone, this thread comes up midway down the first page of hits.


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Well, I just guess I'll have to define it my own self:

Negative harmony is the requirement that if a verb is negated in a sentence then either the subject or the object or both must also be negated, Examples

English - I ain't got no money

Spanish - No hay nada 'There isn't nothing.'

Russian - Я не знаю. Я ничего никогда не знаю. 'I don't know. I don't never know nothing.'

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