[HPforGrownups] GoF: US v UK Double Negatives

[E S]

No: HPFGUIDX 29704

Hmmm ... I've got a first edition hardback and a paperback copy of GoF 
(British version) and in both it says "unless the few of us who know the 
truth stand united" etc.  I have no idea where the mistake comes from, but 
modern British English also adheres to the rule that double negatives cancel 
each other out (in old English they were used for emphasis; a fact my old 
English lit. teacher was constantly trying to drum into my head!) so it must 
just be a printing error.

Emily.


"I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional, but you can't have 
everything." ~ The Purple Rose of Cairo



>From: "Heather Moore" <heathernmoore at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
>To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [HPforGrownups] GoF: US v UK Double Negatives
>Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 21:30:39 -0000
>
>--- In HPforGrownups at y..., butagirl at a... wrote:
> > sonjahric at y... wrote:
> >
> > <<In chapter 36 of GoF (in my book it is page 712) there is a sentence I 
>am
> > confused about:
> >
> > Dumbledore says, "Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the 
>truth
> > do not stand united, there is no hope for any us."
> >
> > Shouldn't it say, "Time is short, and IF the few of us who know the 
>truth do
> > not stand united, there is no hope for any us"  OR, "Time is short, and
> > unless the few of us who know the truth STAND united, there is no hope 
>for
> > any us?">>
> >
> > This must be a printing error in the edition you have. Mine clearly 
>states:
> >
> > "Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand 
>united,
> > there is no hope for any us."
> >
> > Sharon Brindle
>
>
>  It may not technically be an error. I think this is an example of one 
>style difference between British writing and American writing. ASE frowns 
>on double negatives as bad form, interpreting the clauses as cancelling 
>each other out. I believe that in Britain, this sort of double negative is 
>a regarded as a legitimate way to emphasize a point.
>
>Very possibly the earliest printing of GOF in America kept the original 
>phrasing, and an editor subsequently "fixed" that phrasing for later 
>printings?  How does the sentence run in the British editions?
>
>
>


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