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English does construct things this way, maybe just not with the frequency of Chinese. In fact, "not bad" is a common expression. That said, it's true that cert
by Glyptodon 10mo ago
English does construct things this way, maybe just not with the frequency of Chinese. In fact, "not bad" is a common expression.
That said, it's true that certain flavors of US English, like marketing speak, will avoid many phrases in this family.
This is because many American English speakers will see expressions like this, particularly when not used in a directly complementary way, as either bureaucratic and avoidant or slightly pedantic or both. Because for many Americans, leaving ambiguity implies lack of confidence in the statement or evasiveness. (At the same time Americans also know not to trust confident statements - they are separately known to be "snake oily" - but we still tend to see marketing that avoids directness as even less trustworthy.)
So this mode of expression is much more common in personal speech.
- Telemakhos 10mo agoKids in the Pacific Northwest use litotes constantly, to the point of annoyance, and possibly more often than they use the straightforward positive. Everything is "not bad" or "not great" or, if really bad, "super not great." I've always taken it to be a kind of avoidance of confessing one's real feelings.
- thedrexster 10mo ago"super not great" IS a real feeling :) (fellow PNWer, I'd never before thought of this as a regional thing!)
- thedrexster 10mo agoalso, TIL the word "litotes" -- thank you, brother!
- mbg721 10mo agoThe verbal construction words you learn in Classics are excellent. Litotes, chiasmus, synecdoche...
- gsf_emergency_6 10mo agoBest examples of litotes can be found in social media, Chinese or English or any language My guess is that "bu chuo" _was_ a litotes (or originated as one) but the ironic component evaporated with familiarity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litotes#Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litotes#Chinese The literal English translation still seems to be a litotes
- buildbot 10mo agoYeah this tracks - if someone says something is “not great” it’s probably extremely bad haha. or “super cool no problems here” (there’s tear gas streaming through the windows)
- layer8 10mo ago> In fact, "not bad" is a common expression. “Not too bad” is also common and even weaker.