/The Double Negative/--Syntactically, perhaps the chief characteristic of vulgar American is its sturdy fidelity to the double negative. So freely is it used, indeed, that the simple negative appears to be almost abandoned. Such phrases as "I see nobody" or "I know nothing about it" are heard so seldom that they appear to be affectations when encountered; the well-nigh universal forms are "I /don't/ see nobody" and "I /don't/ know nothing about it." Charters lists some very typical examples, among them, "he ain't /never/ coming back /no/ more," "you /don't/ care for nobody but yourself," "couldn't be /no/ more happier" and "I /can't/ see nothing." In Lardner there are innumerable examples: "they was /not/ no team," "I have /not/ never thought of that," "I can't write /no/ more," "no chance to get /no/ money from /nowhere/," "we /can't/ have nothing to do," and so on. Some of his specimens show a considerable complexity, for [Pg232] example, "Matthewson was /not/ only going as far as the coast," meaning, as the context shows, that he was going as far as the coast and no further. /Only/ gets into many other examples, /e. g./, "he hadn't /only/ the one pass" and "I don't work nights no more, /only/ except Sunday nights." This latter I got from a car conductor. Many other curious specimens are in my collectanea, among them: "one swaller don't make /no/ summer," "I /never/ seen nothing I would of rather saw," and "once a child gets burnt once it /won't/ never stick its hand in /no/ fire /no/ more," and so on. The last embodies a triple negative. In "the more faster you go, the sooner you /don't/ get there" there is an elaborate muddling of negatives that is very characteristic.