{"id":11543,"date":"2014-09-22T14:53:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T05:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/?p=11543"},"modified":"2021-08-25T06:03:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T21:03:41","slug":"italian-double-negatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/italian-double-negatives\/","title":{"rendered":"“Non ho fatto niente!” Italian double negatives. Audio."},"content":{"rendered":"YesterdayIwatchedamoviewithJasonStatham<\/a><\/span>anditmademethinkaboutItaliandoublenegatives.IsItalyacountryinneedofgoodgrammar?<\/h1>\n

ThemovieiscalledCHAOS<\/a>,Jasonisabadcopandhe’sextortingaconfession.Youcanseethescreenshots\u00a0here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Girl:\u00a0<\/strong>Ididn’tdonothing!<\/li>\n
  • Jason:\u00a0<\/strong>It’sIdidn’tdoanything.”Didn’tdonothing”isadoublenegative,infersthepositive.Thegrammarinthiscountryisterrible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThisfilm\u00a0isnotamasterpiece,butthe\u00a0linewasbrilliant.<\/p>\nIthoughtaboutthestructureofthesentence”Ididn’tdonothing”,wronginEnglishbutrightinItalian(nonhofattoniente),andaboutallthestudentswho\u00a0pointedthatoutduringmylessons.Isn’tthatadoublenegative?WhyItaliansusesentenceslike”nonc’\u00e8nessuno”and”nonhomangiatoniente”?<\/p>\nTheassumptionthatadoublenegationautomatically”infersthepositive”belongstomathematicsandlogic,nottolanguage.”Ididn’tsayIdon’tloveyou”doesn’tmean”IsaidIloveyou”.<\/p>\nButthequestionhereiswhyinItalianweusetheredundantNONinthesamesentencewithNESSUNO,MAI,NIENTE,NULLA(nobody,never,nothing),which\u00a0alreadyarenegations.TheanswerisbecauseinvulgarLatin,becomingmodernItalian,wealreadyhaddoublenegatives<\/a>\u00a0asnegativesentences.\u00a0Theansweristherefore”because”.<\/p>\nIfyouareparticularlyfastidiousaboutgrammar,wecanliquidatethemattersayingthattheadverbNONis”pleonastic”.Forsimplepeoplelikeme,itmeansthatNONinsentenceslikenonhofattoniente<\/em>isjustanadditiontoreinforcethenegation.Becarefulthough.Itdoesn’tmeanyoucansayhofattoniente\u00a0<\/em>tosayIdidnothing.\u00a0<\/em>WemustaddNONtobuildacorrectsentenceinItalian.<\/p>\nSomeexamples.Trytotranslatethefollowingsentences:<\/p>\n
      \n\t\n

      Hofame.Nonhomangiatoniente.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n\t\n

        Luca\u00e8cadutomanonsi\u00e8fattoniente.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        <\/p>\n

          \n\t\n

          Hotelefonatoacasamanonharispostonessuno<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          <\/p>\n

            \n\t\n

            Nonavetemaimangiatoilsushi?<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            <\/p>\n

              \n\t\n

              Nonsentonulla,alzailvolumedellativ\u00f9perfavore.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              <\/p>\n

                \n\t\n

                Senonstudimai,nonimparerainiente.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                <\/p>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                Thelastone\u00a0isadouble-doublenegative,butit’sperfectlycorrect.Thankgod,Jason,grammarinthiscountryisjustfine.<\/p>\n

                IhopethisshortlessonaboutItaliandoublenegativeswashelpful.Apresto!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                YesterdayIwatchedamoviewithJasonStathamanditmademethinkaboutItaliandoublenegatives.IsItalyacountryinneedofgoodgrammar? ThemovieiscalledCHAOS,Jasonisabadcopandhe’sextortingaconfession.Youcanseethescreenshots\u00a0here: Girl:\u00a0Ididn’tdonothing! Jason:\u00a0It’sIdidn’tdoanything.”Didn’tdonothing”isadoublenegative,infersthepositive.Thegrammarinthiscountryisterrible. Thisfilm\u00a0isnotamasterpiece,butthe\u00a0linewasbrilliant. Ithoughtaboutthestructureofthesentence”Ididn’tdonothing”,wronginEnglishbutrightinItalian(nonhofattoniente),andaboutallthestudentswho\u00a0pointedthatoutduringmylessons.Isn’tthatadoublenegative?WhyItaliansusesentenceslike”nonc’\u00e8nessuno”and”nonhomangiatoniente”? Theassumptionthatadoublenegationautomatically”infersthepositive”belongstomathematicsandlogic,nottolanguage.”Ididn’tsayIdon’tloveyou”doesn’tmean”IsaidIloveyou”. ButthequestionhereiswhyinItalianweusetheredundantNONinthesamesentencewithNESSUNO,MAI,NIENTE,NULLA(nobody,never,nothing),which\u00a0alreadyarenegations.TheanswerisbecauseinvulgarLatin,becomingmodernItalian,wealreadyhaddoublenegatives\u00a0asnegativesentences.\u00a0Theansweristherefore”because”. Ifyouareparticularlyfastidiousaboutgrammar,wecanliquidatethemattersayingthattheadverbNONis”pleonastic”.Forsimplepeoplelikeme,itmeansthatNONinsentenceslikenonhofattonienteisjustanadditiontoreinforcethenegation.Becarefulthough.Itdoesn’tmeanyoucansayhofattoniente\u00a0tosayIdidnothing.\u00a0WemustaddNONtobuildacorrectsentenceinItalian. Someexamples.Trytotranslatethefollowingsentences: Hofame.Nonhomangiatoniente. Luca\u00e8cadutomanonsi\u00e8fattoniente. Hotelefonatoacasamanonharispostonessuno Nonavetemaimangiatoilsushi? Nonsentonulla,alzailvolumedellativ\u00f9perfavore. Senonstudimai,nonimparerainiente.   Thelastone\u00a0isadouble-doublenegative,butit’sperfectlycorrect.Thankgod,Jason,grammarinthiscountryisjustfine. IhopethisshortlessonaboutItaliandoublenegativeswashelpful.Apresto!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[890,891,277,887,888,886],"class_list":["post-11543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lingua","tag-doppie-negative","tag-italian-double-negatives","tag-mai","tag-nessuno","tag-niente","tag-non-ce-nessuno","no-featured-image-padding","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dante-learning.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}