Two Rights Make A Wrong

[Barry]

A linguistics professor was lecturing his class.

"In English," he explained, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative."

"However," the professor continued, "there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

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

[Zeno Swijtink]

Actually, the voice in the back was Sidney Morgenbesser 's of Columbia University ("Erudite and influential American linguistic philosopher with the analytical acuity of Spinoza and the blunt wit of Groucho Marx") who said: "Yeah, yeah ." This was during a lecture by Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin.


John Austin


Sidney Morgenbesser

A linguistics professor was lecturing his class.

"In English," he explained, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative."

"However," the professor continued, "there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

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