ABSTRACT
Summary: The argument that a ‘double negative’ such as I never said nothing is equivalent to ‘I said something’ is based on a mathematical parallel. But the logic of language is not the same as the logic of mathematics. Not only does linguistic logic – in other languages as well as in English – suggest that the more negative words you can pile up, the more negative the message is, it also allows two positives to make a negative, something which does not happen in mathematics. There are places where the mathematical logic seems to apply in language, but there are also places where it does not, and places where we do not seem to know whether things should be positive or negative. Trying to apply the same rules of interpretation to both mathematics and linguistic study can lead to severe misunderstandings. The rules of language are more parochial than that.
