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Double negative

Posted by ESC on July 27, 2004

In Reply to: Double negative posted by Henry on July 27, 2004

: : Do you like Elvis' songs? What about the lyrics?

: : 1.Mean Woman Blues
: : "I got a woman as mean as she can be." I've heard this phrase "as adj. as one can be" a lot. What does that mean?

: : 2.King Creole
: : "Well, he sings a song about a crowded hole
: : He sings a song about a jelly roll
: : He sings a song about meat and greens
: : He wails some blues about new orleans"

: : Could you tell me what're a crowded hole and "meat and greens"?

: : 3.Trouble
: : "My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack"
: : Who could be a "mountain jack"?

: : "I don't take no orders From no kind of man"
: : What does this "not-no-no" sentence want to say?

: : Thanks!

: Not, no. This is a double negative - each no just adds emphasis to the not. "I don't take orders from anyone." English is not the same as arithmetic where two minuses make a plus!

Here's two.

Jelly roll = sex.

Jack = man. (Merriam-Webster online: JACK 1 a : MAN -- usually used as an intensive in such phrases as every man jack b often capitalized : SAILOR c : SERVANT, LABORER : LUMBERJACK

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