A Lesson In Grammar (Off-Topic)

Ed Tyler errancy@infidels.org
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 17:05:22 -0600 (00930369922, 3.0.5.32.19990625170522.007c13e0@pop.truman.edu) 

At 06:00 PM 6/25/99 EDT, JAlw@aol.com wrote:

> A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day. "In English," he

> said, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such

> as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no

> language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

> 

> A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."


Ed

I just gave a final exam in a linguistics course today.  Early in the
second week, we discussed grammar and the influence of the prescriptive
grammarians on the language, specifically with respect to rules like double
negatives and split infinitives.

I told them this joke, and they had almost all heard it already.