top | item 6596508

(no title)

notaddicted | 12 years ago

I doubt anyone would disagree that triple negatives aren't easy to parse.

discuss

order

troels|12 years ago

It's not the triple negative that is the culprit here though. It's the inherent ambiguity in a phrase such as "never been better", which could be either a negative or positive statement. I'm sure there's a name for that construct?

Dylan16807|12 years ago

I think tptacek's sentence would need a 'than' to have a valid reading as a positive statement. 'never been better' is ambiguous by itself, but by the time you put it into a sentence it may or may not be ambiguous.

So my answer is mu.

im3w1l|12 years ago

If that sentence hadn't mentioned triple negatives, I don't think I would have noticed anything abnormal about it.

girvo|12 years ago

Now I'm curious how natural language parsers handle triple negatives.

JacobAldridge|12 years ago

You'll be pleased to know that they don't not do them unwell.