商務英語郵件寫作指南：雙重否定就是肯定？
My last post referred to confusing multiple negatives. This one looks at the common grammatical problem of double negatives.
上一篇文章講了多重否定，這一篇將會關注那些更常見的雙重否定中出現的語法問題。
Have a look at this example:
來看一下這個例句吧：
WRONG
錯誤
This Escrow Account Agreement expires if no money is not credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June.
假如在6月30日之前沒有錢被存入第三方托管賬戶，該第三方托管賬戶協議即告截止。
Although this grammatical construction is correct in many languages, it is not correct in English. It was, however, common usage several centuries ago, and it still exists in colloquial English now. This explains well known examples such as “I can’t get no satisfaction” and “We don’t need no education”. But it is not correct in formal written English.
盡管這種語法結構在很多語言中都是正確的，但在英語中卻是錯的。然而，在很多個世紀以前，這種用法非常常見，而在今天的英語口語中，也依然存在。這解釋了一些有名的例子，比如“I can’t get no satisfaction 我得不到滿足”以及“We don’t need no education 我們不需要教育”。但在正式的書面英語中，這并不是正確的。
The grammatical concept is called “negative concord”. In languages that have negative concord, such as Spanish, Polish and Hungarian, the double negative intensifies the negation. However, in languages that do not have negative concord, such as Standard English and German, a double negative is understood to resolve into a positive.
這種語法概念叫做“否定和諧”。在有否定和諧的語言中，比如西班牙語、波蘭語和匈牙利語，這種雙重否定會加重否定。然而在那些不具有否定和諧的語言中，比如標準英語和德語，雙重否定會形成肯定。
So the above example technically means:
所以那句例句實際上意味著：
This Escrow Account Agreement expires if money is credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June.
如果在6月30日之前有錢被存入第三方托管賬戶，該第三方托管賬戶協議即告截止。
In reality, of course, it is unlikely anyone would understand it this way, as it wouldn’t make any sense. But the sentence should be corrected as follows:
在現實中，當然，不會有什么人會這樣理解它的，因為這樣毫無意義。但是這句話還是應該被改成這樣：
RIGHT
正確
This Escrow Account Agreement expires if no money is credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June 2013.
如果在2013年6月30日之前沒有錢被存入第三方托管賬戶，該第三方托管賬戶協議即告截止。
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