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Examples
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I don't think it's a joke, since this seems like a pretty common case of overnegation.
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And they also guard against the risk that the taxpayer does not bear a disproportionate burden of the costs cleaning up the banks. overnegation, comments that "My fear is that they actually mean exactly what they say."
Language Log 2009
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On the other hand, the exclusion could have been grafted onto the easy version, for emphasis: overnegation.
Language Log 2008
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At least twice here on Language Log, we've looked at combinations of negation and exclusion that might be seen as overnegation
Language Log 2008
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In case 1, "but less than precise" might have been intended as emphatic; that would be routine overnegation, with an exclusion phrase in addition to an external negative.
Language Log 2008
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