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Litotes

Litotes is a stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or thing. This positive feature, however, is somewhat diminished in quality as compared with a synonymous expression making a straightforward assertion of the positive feature. Let us compare the following two pairs of sentences:

1. It's notabad thing — It's a good thing.

2. He is nocoward — He is a brave man.

'Not bad' is not equal to 'good' although the two constructions are synonymous. The same can be said about the second pair, 'no coward' and 'a brave man'. In both cases the negative construction is weaker than the affirmative one. Still we cannot say that the two negative constructions produce a lesser effect than the corresponding affirmative ones. Moreover, it should be noted that the negative constructions here have a stronger impact on the reader than the affirmative ones. The latter have no additional connotation; the former have. That is why such constructions are regarded as stylistic devices. Litotes is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic effect. It is not a pure negation, but a negation that includes affirmation. Therefore here, as in the case of rhetorical questions, we may speak of transference of meaning, i.e., a device with the help of which two meanings are materialized simultaneously: the direct (negative) and transferred (affirmative).

So the negation in litotes should not be regarded as a mere denial of the quality mentioned. The structural aspect of the negative combination backs up the semantic aspect: the negatives no and not are more emphatically pronounced than in ordinary negative sentences, thus bringing to mind the corresponding antonym.

The stylistic effect of litotes depends mainly on intonation, on intonation only. If we compare two intonation patterns, one which suggests a mere denial ( Itisnotbad as a contrary to Itisbad ) with the other which suggests the assertion of a positive quality of the object ( Itisnotbad = itisgood ) the difference will become apparent. The degree to which litotes carries the positive quality in itself can be estimated by analysing the semantic structure of the word which is negated.

Let us examine the following sentences in which litotes is used:

1. "Whatever defects the tale possessed — and they were notafew — it had, as delivered by her, the one merit of seeming like truth."

2. "He was notwithouttaste ..."

3. "It troubled him notalittle ..."

4. "He found that this was noeasytask ."

5. "He was nogentlelamb, and the part of second fiddle would never do for the high-pitched dominance of his nature." (Jack London)

6. "Mr. Bardell was a man of honour — Mr. Bardell was a man of his word — Mr. Bardell was nodeceiver ..." (Dickens)

7. "She was wearing a fur coat... Carr, the enthusiastic appreciator of smart women and as good a judge of dress as any man to be met in a Pall Mall club, saw that she was nocountrycousin. She had style, or 'devil', as he preferred to call it." (Warwick Deeping)

Even a superfluous analysis of the litotes in the above sentences clearly shows that the negation does not merely indicate the absence of the quality mentioned but suggests the presence of the opposite quality. Charles Bally, a well-known Swiss linguist, states that negative sentences are used with the purpose of "refusing to affirm."

In sentences 5, 6 and 7 where it is explained by the context, litotes reveals its true function. The idea of 'no gentle lamb' is further strengthened by the 'high-pitched dominance of his nature', the litotes 'no deceiver' is clearer and more emphatic because of the preceding phrases 'a man of honour', 'a man of his word', and finally the function and meaning of 'no country cousin' is made clear by 'as good a judge of dress...', 'she had style..:'. Thus like other stylistic devices litotes displays a simultaneous materialization of two meanings: one negative, the other affirmative. This interplay of two grammatical meanings is keenly felt, so much so indeed, that the affirmation suppresses the negation, the latter being only the form in which the real pronouncement is moulded. According to the science of logic, negation as a category can hardly express a pronouncement. Only an assertion can do so. That is why we. may say that any negation only suggests an assertion. Litotes is a means by which this natural logical and linguistic property of negation can be strengthened. The two senses of the litotic expression, negative and positive, serve a definite stylistic purpose.

A variant of litotes is a construction with two negations, as in notunlike, notunpromising, notdispleased and the like. Here, according to general logical and mathematical principles, two negatives make a positive. Thus in the sentence — "Soames, with his lips and his squared chin was not unlike a bull dog" (Galsworthy), the litotes may be interpreted as somewhat resembling. In spite of the fact that such constructions make the assertion more logically apparent, they lack precision. They may truly be regarded as deliberate understatements, whereas the pattern structure of litotes, i.e. those that have only one negative are much more categorical in stating the positive quality of a person or thing.

An interesting jest at the expense of an English statesman who over-used the device of double negation was published in the Spectator, May 23, 1958. Here it is:

"Anyway, as the pre-Whitsun dog-days barked themselves into silence, a good deal of pleasure could be obtained by a connoisseur who knew where to seek it. On Monday, for instance, from Mr. Selwyn Lloyd. His trick of seizing upon a phrase that has struck him (erroneously, as a rule) as a happy one, and doggedly sticking to it thereafter is one typical of a speaker who lacks all confidence. On Monday it was 'not unpromising'; three times he declared that various aspects of the Summit preparations were 'not unpromising', and I was moved in the end to conclude that Mr. Lloyd is a not unpoor Foreign Secretary, and that if he should not unshortly leave that office the not unbetter it would be for all of us, not unhim included."

Litotes is used in different styles of speech, excluding those which may be called the matter-of-fact styles, like official style and scientific prose. In poetry it is sometimes used to suggest that language fails to adequately convey the poet's feelings and therefore he uses negations to express the inexpressible. Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 130 is to some extent illustrative in this respect. Here all the hackneyed phrases used by the poet to depict his beloved are negated with the purpose of showing the superiority of the earthly qualities of "My mistress." The first line of this sonnet 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun' is a clear-cut litotes although the object to which the eyes are compared is generally perceived as having only positive qualities.

The analysis of the semantic structure of words that can be used in litotes is an interesting study which still awaits investigators.

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