Parsing double-negatives

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In speech I can't do it. Just today I said to my mother: 'I can't complete my assignment without the Internet'

Her reply was a double negative: 'Don't you need the Internet for it?'

Apart from being an unnecessary question, I simply I couldn't answer. I tried and tried to think of a response but I was physically unable to speak and I started to get facial tics.

I finally mustered the response of 'Why did you say that as a double negative?'

And she corrected herself to 'Do you need the Internet for it?'

To which I easily responded 'Yes.'

I felt like a robot being given a logical paradox.


Have you come across the same issue, or similar?

A lot of people just don't know how to talk properly. And then they accuse us of being pedantic when we point out their mistakes, as though we were the ones at fault.

Unless I'm missing something (happens often!), that's not a double negative, is it? I mean there's only one negative there, unlike in "I haven't got no internets". For people who get upset about double negatives, note that you'd be happy with "I haven't got any internets", where the "any" is still a "negative polarity" item. Double negatives aren't standard English but they're grammatically valid in various dialects and, crucially, nobody is ever really confused by the meaning unless they go out of their way to cancel out the negatives and make a positive!

(Apologies for my frivolous use of the modern word "internets" in such a sober topic!)

I guess the confusing aspect of your mother's question is that it has a negative at all. The simplest way of putting the question would be "Do you need the internet for it?" Adding the negative to the question makes you wonder if you should also negate your answer (apparently you shouldn't, but it's not obvious). A clear answer would be something like "I do", or "I don't need it".

I am so glad that I am not the only one.

I 'aint got no problem with understanding no double or triple negatives.

They just irritate me; I feel the urge to correct people like I feel an itch. I dislike that I'm so automatically pedantic.

Your example did not look like a double negative to me.

I can't not parse a double negative. I will not never parse them incorrectly. But parsed they will be.

I know the OP didn't use the term "double negative" correctly, but surely we can overlook that, because we all know what he meant.

Heee!! ! ! !!


I think and think to see if it makes any sense to me until it baffles me totally and then I ask them back what that meant.

or sometimes I simply ignore if I am not in a thinking mood and just repeat what I said "I need the internet"

Passing right over the fact that this isn't a double negative, this question would also stump me and leave me stuck without words. I'm not good at answering questions, but it gets altogether too confusing when I've answered the question already .... as you had.

My response (unspoken) would have been along the lines of ...

"Why is she asking me? I already told her I needed the Internet ... didn't I? .... what did I just say? Did I say what I think I said? What I wanted to say? ... wait, what did she ask me again ...erm ....." (look at my feet, turn around, and exit)

I meant double-negative in the sense that answering either yes or no to the question will answer negatively to the question. That is:

No, I don't need the Internet for it.
Yes, I don't need the Internet for it.

I'm not sure what the proper term for that is.

I know what I should have said now, which is 'I need the Internet for it', but it went over my head at the time.

I think the correct answer syntactically is "No, I don't need the Internet for it", but it's one that even some NTs have trouble with and I used to struggle with it a lot, especially because both sentences gave the same answer.

And as for the proper term, I don't know the word for it but it sounds a lot like that damned if you do and damned if you don't type of thing.

And I'm not entirely sure whether an inversion of logic can be applied to it.

For example, if you had a positive question like 'Do you like cats', you would answer either:

Yes (I like cats).
No (I don't like cats).

It would be logical then that switching the order of yes and no in response to a negative question would create two separate answers:

Don't you like cats?

Yes (I don't like cats).
No (I like cats).

But that kind of logic apparently doesn't work. I think I'll stick with the short answer mentioned by WoodenBoy: 'I do'. I guess sometimes 'yes' or 'no' isn't enough, even though I would like it to be.

Yeah, stick to that where possible. But if you insist on giving a longer answer to the above question then you always say no but state your position afterwards.

Example: Don't you like cats?

No, I don't like cats.
No, I do like cats.

The golden rule is to always say no when a question like that comes up, but even then you need to be careful about things like tone of voice. I agree with you, it's a tough one.

hmmm - bad memory of getting caught out throwing an eraser in tech drawing class in high school - damned thing had a teacher seeking chip in it or something because it bounced off two desks then went thru a doorway bounced off two walls and hit him in back of the head

Keep in mind I was a mr goody two shoes A student.

He calmly walked up to me and very calmly said "you won't do that again will you?" - to which I replied "Yes"

That's where the calm ended... - he didn't seem to hear my clarification of "yes, I won't do that again"

Have other similar things happen from time to time - not sure if any of that quite fits the topic but it sort of feels like it does.

See, that's where my theory as to what to say would stand up perfectly. No requires a lot less clarification than yes, as was evidenced with your situation, Wooster.

French is a better language than English in that respect. You can say 'Si', meaning 'Yes', to a negative question. For example: 'You're not going out in that rain, are you?' You can say 'Si', meaning 'Yes, I am going out'. The French language makers have realised that 'Oui' or 'Non' would be too confusing. Maybe we should come up with something suitable in English.