ASSERTION BY NEGATIVE OF OPPOSITE.
Assertions are often made by using the negative of the opposite assertion.
'You must be hungry now Tom, and this little rasher will do you no harm,'
meaning it will do you good. An old man has tired himself dancing and
says:--'A glass of whiskey will do us no harm after that.' (Carleton.) A
lady occupying a furnished house at the seaside near Dublin said to the boy
who had charge of the premises:--'There may be burglars about here;
wouldn't it be well for you to come and close the basement shutters at
night?' 'Why then begob ma'am _'twould be no har-um_.' Here is a bit of
rustic information (from Limerick) that might be useful to food experts:--
'Rye bread will do you good,
Barley bread _will do you no harm_,
Wheaten bread will sweeten your blood,
Oaten bread will strengthen your arm.'
{17}
This curious way of speaking, which is very general among all classes of
people in Ireland and in every part of the country, is often used in the
Irish language, from which we have imported it into our English. Here are a
few Irish examples; but they might be multiplied indefinitely, and some
others will be found through this chapter. In the Irish tale called 'The
Battle of Gavra,' the narrator says:--[The enemy slew a large company of
our army] 'and that was no great help to us.' In 'The Colloquy,' a piece
much older than 'The Battle of Gavra,' Kylta, wishing to tell his audience
that when the circumstance he is relating occurred he was very young,
expresses it by saying [at that time] 'I myself was not old.'
One night a poet was grossly insulted: 'On the morrow he rose and he was
not thankful.' (From the very old Irish tale called 'The Second Battle of
Moytura': Rev. Celt.)
Another old Irish writer, telling us that a certain company of soldiers is
well out of view, expresses it in this way:--_Ni fhuil in cuire gan
chleith_, literally, 'the company is not without concealment.'
How closely these and other old models are imitated in our English will be
seen from the following examples from every part of Ireland:--
'I can tell you Paddy Walsh is no chicken now,' meaning he is very old. The
same would be said of an old maid:--'She's no chicken,' meaning that she is
old for a girl.
'How are your potato gardens going on this year?' 'Why then they're not too
good'; i.e. only middling or bad.
A usual remark among us conveying mild approval {18} is 'that's not bad.' A
Dublin boy asked me one day:--'Maybe you wouldn't have e'er a penny that
you'd give me, sir?' i.e., 'Have you a penny to give me?' 'You wouldn't
like to have a cup of tea, would you?' An invitation, but not a cordial
one. This is a case of '_will you_ was never a good fellow' (for which see
Vocabulary).
'No joke' is often used in the sense of 'very serious.' 'It was no joke to
be caught in our boat in such a storm as that.' 'The loss of L10 is no joke
for that poor widow.'
'As for Sandy he worked like a downright demolisher--
Bare as he is, yet _his lick is no polisher_.'
(THOMAS MOORE in the early part of his career.)
You remark that a certain person has some fault, he is miserly, or
extravagant, or dishonest, &c.: and a bystander replies, 'Yes indeed, and
'tisn't to-day or yesterday it happened him'--meaning that it is a fault of
long standing.
A tyrannical or unpopular person goes away or dies:--'There's many a dry
eye after him.' (Kildare.)
'Did Tom do your work as satisfactorily as Davy?' 'Oh, it isn't alike': to
imply that Tom did the work very much better than Davy.
'Here is the newspaper; and 'tisn't much you'll find in it.'
'Is Mr. O'Mahony good to his people?' 'Oh, indeed he is no great things':
or another way of saying it:--'He's no great shakes.' 'How do you like your
new horse?' 'Oh then he's no great shakes'--or 'he's {19} not much to boast
of.' Lever has this in a song:--'You think the Blakes are no great shakes.'
But I think it is also used in England.
A consequential man who carries his head rather higher than he ought:--'He
thinks no small beer of himself.'
Mrs. Slattery gets a harmless fall off the form she is sitting on, and is
so frightened that she asks of the person who helps her up, 'Am I killed?'
To which he replies ironically--'Oh there's great fear of you.'
('Knocknagow.')
[Alice Ryan is a very purty girl] 'and she doesn't want to be reminded of
that same either.' ('Knocknagow.')
A man has got a heavy cold from a wetting and says: 'That wetting did me no
good,' meaning 'it did me great harm.'
'There's a man outside wants to see you, sir,' says Charlie, our office
attendant, a typical southern Irishman. 'What kind is he Charlie? does he
look like a fellow wanting money?' Instead of a direct affirmative, Charlie
answers, 'Why then sir I don't think he'll give you much anyway.'
'Are people buried there now?' I asked of a man regarding an old graveyard
near Blessington in Wicklow. Instead of answering 'very few,' he replied:
'Why then not too many sir.'
When the roads are dirty--deep in mire--'there's fine walking overhead.'
In the Irish Life of St. Brigit we are told of a certain chief:--'It was
not his will to sell the bondmaid,' by which is meant, it was his will
_not_ to sell her. {20}
So in our modern speech the father says to the son:--'It is not my wish
that you should go to America at all,' by which he means the positive
assertion:--'It is my wish that you should not go.'
Tommy says, 'Oh, mother, I forgot to bring you the sugar.' 'I wouldn't
doubt you,' answers the mother, as much as to say, 'It is just what I'd
expect from you.'
When a message came to Rory from absent friends, that they were true to
Ireland:--
'"My _sowl_, I never doubted them" said Rory of the hill.' (Charles
Kickham.)
'It wouldn't be wishing you a pound note to do so and so': i.e. 'it would
be as bad as the loss of a pound,' or 'it might cost you a pound.' Often
used as a sort of threat to deter a person from doing it.
'Where do you keep all your money?' 'Oh, indeed, _it's not much I have_':
merely translated from the Gaelic, _Ni moran ata agum_.
To a silly foolish fellow:--'There's a great deal of sense outside your
head.'
'The only sure way to conceal evil is not to do it.'
'I don't think very much of these horses,' meaning 'I have a low opinion of
them.'
'I didn't pretend to understand what he said,' appears a negative
statement; but it is really one of our ways of making a positive one:--'I
pretended not to understand him.' To the same class belongs the common
expression 'I don't think':--'I don't think you bought that horse too
dear,' meaning 'I think you did not buy him too dear'; 'I don't think this
day will be wet,' equivalent to 'I think it will not be wet.' {21}
Lowry Looby is telling how a lot of fellows attacked Hardress Cregan, who
defends himself successfully:--'Ah, it isn't a goose or a duck they had to
do with when they came across Mr. Cregan.' (Gerald Griffin.) Another way of
expressing the same idea often heard:--'He's no sop (wisp) in the road';
i.e. 'he's a strong brave fellow.'
'It was not too wise of you to buy those cows as the market stands at
present,' i.e. it was rather foolish.
'I wouldn't be sorry to get a glass of wine, meaning, 'I would be glad.'
An unpopular person is going away:--
'Joy be with him and a bottle of moss,
And if he don't return he's no great loss.'
'How are you to-day, James?'
'Indeed I can't say that I'm very well': meaning 'I am rather ill.'
'You had no right to take that book without my leave'; meaning 'You were
wrong in taking it--it was wrong of you to take it.' A translation of the
Irish _ni coir duit_. 'A bad right' is stronger than 'no right.' 'You have
no right to speak ill of my uncle' is simply negation:--'You are wrong, for
you have no reason or occasion to speak so.' 'A bad right you have to speak
ill of my uncle:' that is to say, 'You are doubly wrong' [for he once did
you a great service]. 'A bad right anyone would have to call Ned a screw'
[for he is well known for his generosity]. ('Knocknagow.') Another way of
applying the word--in the sense of _duty_--is seen in the following:--A
member at an Urban Council {22} meeting makes an offensive remark and
refuses to withdraw it: when another retorts:--'You have a right to
withdraw it'--i.e. 'it is your duty.' So:--'You have a right to pay your
debts.'
'Is your present farm as large as the one you left?' Reply:--'Well indeed
it doesn't want much of it.' A common expression, and borrowed from the
Irish, where it is still more usual. The Irish _beagnach_ ('little but')
and _acht ma beag_ ('but only a little') are both used in the above sense
('doesn't want much'), equivalent to the English _almost_.
A person is asked did he ever see a ghost. If his reply is to be negative,
the invariable way of expressing it is: 'I never saw anything worse than
myself, thanks be to God.'
A person is grumbling without cause, making out that he is struggling in
some difficulty--such as poverty--and the people will say to him
ironically: 'Oh how bad you are.' A universal Irish phrase among high and
low.
A person gives a really good present to a girl:--'He didn't affront her by
that present.' (Patterson: Antrim and Down.)
How we cling to this form of expression--or rather how it clings to us--is
seen in the following extract from the Dublin correspondence of one of the
London newspapers of December, 1909:--'Mr. ---- is not expected to be
returned to parliament at the general election'; meaning it _is_ expected
that he will _not_ be returned. So also:--'How is poor Jack Fox to-day?'
'Oh he's not expected'; i.e. not expected to live,--he is _given over_.
This expression, _not expected_, is a very common Irish phrase in cases of
death sickness. {23}
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