Litotes Puns

E.g in English you might say

• "It's not my favourite" meaning "I don't like it"
• "It's not a simple task" meaning "It's quite complicated"
• "It's not unlike that one" meaning "It is like that one"
• "He is no ordinary man" meaning "He is an extraordinary man"

Just wondering

Words you might not have heard of -

• paideia: training of the physical and mental faculties in such a way as to produce a broad enlightened mature outlook harmoniously combined with maximum cultural development.
• pogonotrophy: the cultivation of beards, beard-growing.
• decathect: To withdraw one's feelings of attachment from (a person, idea, or object), as in anticipation of a future loss.
• litotes: understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in "not a bad singer" or "not unhappy").
• susurration: A soft murmur or whisper.

These words are taken from vocabulary app - Vocab Assistant

I speak three languages, English, French and Mandarin. I've noticed how all three make use of litotes, i.e. "not bad" "pas mal" "不错". How common is this across languages? Is there a psycholinguistic reason for these expressions to arise in a language?

Some interesting words -

• voluptuary: a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit and enjoyment of luxury and sensual pleasure.
• carbuncle: a smooth, uncunt red stone, usually a garnet OR a large boil on one's skin OR (in heraldry) eight scepters or staves radiating from a common center.
• rebarbative: repellent; unattractive; objectionable.
• claustrophile: A person who has the condition of claustrophilia, a love of closed-in spaces.
• litotes: understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in "not a bad singer" or "not unhappy").

These interesting words are taken from Vocab Assistant which is a vocabulary building chatbot.

We were going through the three first acts, and not unsuccessfully upon the whole.

-- Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

I’ve always been taught that double negatives retain their negative meaning in Spanish. So, “Yo no se nada,” (I don’t know nothing) means “I know nothing” in English, since the negatives don’t cancel.

This was a fine and dandy explanation when I was in high school, especially since I wasn’t constructing any complex sentences or whatever at the time. And I haven’t taken Spanish classes in a long time, so it’s not like I’ve had to give that grammar rule much thought since then.

However, double negatives are encountered so often in English. And after reading too many legal passages — and having my head spin on too many occasions as a result — I began to think about how other languages might deal with this. At least in English, double negatives can involve a lot of mental gymnastics to properly understand. I wondered how speakers of languages without negations dealt with these hidden nuances. Or if they were an entire non-issue, because their grammatical construction didn’t semantically exist in that other language.

I came up with these examples off the top of my head:

“The defendant doesn’t admit he’s guilty.” He’s not claiming he’s innocent, though.

“It’s not like I hate Justin Bieber.” On the other hand, it’s not like I love him.

“She’s not ungrateful about it.” But she’s not exactly grateful, either.

“My clothing choices are never inappropriate.” But neither are they always the most appropriate.

“Nobody called you unattractive.” Still, no one said that you’re beautiful.

I would like to know how Spanish can phrase sentences where a double negative has the intended effect of cancelling each other out, instead of being used for emphasis. Do you use three negatives? Are you just forced to modify your sentence into a positive form? Or maybe what my teacher told me about Spanish negatives only applies in some cases, and not others. Considering how pervasive double negatives’ roles are in the English legal system, I’m also curious in general how the legal jargon in Spanish is set up (if any bilingual lawyers have some insight they can offer to share).

As a side note that may be or may not fall into this same category. How are negative and directive leading questions phrased in Spanish? And how are you typically supposed to respond to them?

For example:

“Haven’t you seen the news?”

“He hit you, didn’t he?”

“Isn’t it true that you stole from her?”

“She never loved you, did she?”

“You didn’t stay over at his house, yes?”

“They can read, can’t the

The ice maker could feel his time running out. Stories of the other cities had reached his ears. Law and order wiped out, they said.

But it was not apparent to him, the danger, that the monk posed a threat to his way of life, as his hand motioned for the man with the tranquil face to enter.

Litotes

noun

1. understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”.

example usage

"It's just a flesh wound" => "My arm has been severed from my body"

dictionary.com

Phil

Sudden Lee

Go post NSFW jokes somewhere else. If I can't tell my kids this joke, then it is not a DAD JOKE.

If you feel it's appropriate to share NSFW jokes with your kids, that's on you. But a real, true dad joke should work for anyone's kid.

Mods... If you exist... Please, stop this madness. Rule #6 should simply not allow NSFW or (wtf) NSFL tags. Also, remember that MINORS browse this subreddit too? Why put that in rule #6, then allow NSFW???

Please consider changing rule #6. I love this sub, but the recent influx of NSFW tagged posts that get all the upvotes, just seem wrong when there are good solid DAD jokes being overlooked because of them.

Thank you,

A Dad.

Well, toucan play at that game.

#How to make things Bold, italics, strike through, etc. on mobile

Directions for Mobile Editing and Poem Formatting

First off, here’s directions for if you don’t know how to edit: If you are on the post: in the top right corner of your phone there should be three dots. You click on the three dots and a new thing will pop up. There will be many options, you want to click on “Edit post” when you are done, click the word “done.”

Heres the directions for formatting: Put in your first line. Click return once, then a second time. Put in your next line (Repeat). When you want to show a change in stanza click return twice again, then add a period, dash, slant, or basically any punctuation you want. After you put in the punctuation press return twice again.

Places to Submit

Places to Submit without having to review:

r/Poems

r/JustPoetry

r/creativewriting

r/poem_a_day

r/poetryreading

r/Poet

r/haiku

Places to Submit with Review:

r/OCPoetry

r/poetry_critics

Need help with what to say in a review?

Give a Compliment

I like it!

Beautiful job!

You’ve done amazing!

Loving this vibe!

Talk about your favorite part

A line in the poem

Title of the work

If there’s repetition, alliteration, allusion, metaphors, similes, caesura, diction, end-stop lines, imagery, rhymes, near rhymes, onomatopoeia, paradox, and/or good syntax

Critique (if needed)

Could be a small grammatical error

Maybe a different word will sound better in a spot

Should add something to emphasize a point

If something needs further clarification

End with a positive remark

Thank you for sharing!

I hope to read some of your work again!

Terms you may want to know

**Sources: my own knowledge and Public.WSU.edu

Enjambment:

• the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

First person is the I/we perspective. Second person is the you perspective. Third person is the he/she/it/they perspective.

Line: one sentence

Couplet: 2 lines put together

Stanza: a group of line usually with a recurring metric use l, separated by a line break

Repetition:

• repeating something multiple times

Poetry Types:

• Free Style - a poem with no specific metric use in mind when creating it. Could be all of the

Martin Freeman, and Andy Serkis.

They also play roles in Lord of the Rings.

I guess that makes them the Tolkien white guys.

Windows

She said apple-lutely

'Eye-do'

This is my first post pls don't kill me lol.

The people in the comment section is why I love this subreddit!!

Cred once again my sis wants credit lol

Keep in mind, my son is 4 years old, so everything is an original to him.

I had to work late into the evening yesterday, and he was just going to bed when I got home. I had left home for the office nearly 14 hours prior, had a long day, lots of meetings, traffic, etc.

When I walked through the door, I was exhausted, run down, and starving. My wife hugged me and asked how my day was, and I replied, "Done. It was a good day, but has got me exhausted. I just want to grab a bite and go to bed. I'm hungry."

From my son's bedroom, I hear him shout, "Hi Hungry! Nice to meet you!"

Not only did it make me laugh, but I completely forgot about how hungry and tired I was. I went to his bedroom, and we laughed together about it. It was exactly what I needed.

Edit: Thanks for all the awards, kind strangers! I'll let my son know y'all enjoyed his joke too!

I heard parents named their children lance a lot.

First post please don't kill me

Edit: i went to sleep and now my inbox is dead, thank you kind strangers for the awards!

Japan.

second hand stores!

it's Hans free now..