(September 18, 2015 at 5:09 pm)Jenny A Wrote:(September 18, 2015 at 5:04 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: I had this explained to me. In African cultures/languages negatives don't function as a toggle. More negatives just add emphasis. It isn't a failure in logic, just a change of usage.
So antidisirregardless would mean absolutely without regard to .. to the nth degree.
Unlike here where we take the ir- as erasing the -less.
Yes, but this is English and it's usually a white educated person's mistake so it isn't a carry over from another language, like not nowhow, noway. And bingo, the perpetrator (sorry Kingy it's not a unforgivable sin just a venial one) here is white and educated. Besides, how can something me even more regardless?
Actually this was explained to me by a black man brought in by my district to help white teachers better relate to black kids. And it wasn't explained as anything harking back to Africa itself, but to black English as a dialect. It was in that context that I was told that multiple negatives don't operate logically, conveying emphasis instead.
I would always cringe for anyone using "irregardless" out loud. I understand the term was coined by Abbot and Costello in a comedy routine.
It still grates for me personally, but if I were still teaching and a black kid said it I would simply code it as emphasis. As a math teacher, I would be no more disturbed than I am by kid's spelling.
