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*** thanks, but still...

Posted by Sphinx on July 28, 2004

In Reply to: Double negative, the joke posted by Bob 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

: The professor said, "In Russian, and in many other languages, a double negative intensifies the denial, just as it does in ungrammatical English. But curiously, nowhere, in no language, does a double positive make a negative."
: To which, a voice from the back of the lecture hall said, "yeah, sure."

1."a double negative intensifies the denial", could you please give another exmaple of this?

And what about this: "I'd take no orders from no kind of man".

2."I got a woman as mean as she can be."
I've heard this phrase "as adjective as somebody can be" a lot. What does that phrase mean?

3.What is a crowded hole?

Now here come two new ones:
4.In "Treat Me Nice",
"Don't you ever kiss me once, kiss me twice, treat me nice."
But in "Trouble", "Well I'm evil, so don't you mess around with me."
Are the two "don't you" the same?

Great thanks!

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