Litotes

(From the Greek ‘litotes’ – простота)

Litotes is a SD consisting in peculiar use of negative constructions:

The negation ‘Not/No’ + Noun/adjective

serves to establish a positive feature of a person or thing. This positive feature however, is somewhat diminished in quality as compared with a straightforward synonymous way of expressing the positive idea.

e.g. It’s not a bad thing. – It’s a good thing.

He is no coward. - He is a brave man.

In both cases the negative construction is weaker than the affirmative one. Still, the negative constructions produce a stronger impact on the reader. Unlike the affirmative constructions, they have additional connotation. That is why they are regarded as SDs.

Litotes is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic effect. It is a negation that includes affirmation. Therefore, we can speak of transference of meaning: the direct (negative) and the transferred (affirmative) meanings are materialized simultaneously.

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. This brings to mind the corresponding antonym.

The stylistic effect of litotes depends mainly on intonation.

Cf.: He was not without taste…

It troubled him not a little.

He found that this was no easy task.

She was no country cousin. She had style, or ‘devil’ as he preferred to call it.

A variant of litotes is a construction with 2 negations as in

not unlike

not unpromising

not displeased and the like.

Here according to general logical and mathematical principles two negative make a positive. Thus, in the sentence “Soames, with his lips and his squared chin, was not unlike a bull dog” the litotes may be interpreted as ‘somewhat resembling’.

Despite the fact that such constructions make the assertion (утверждение) more logically apparent, they lack precision, whereas the structures of litotes with one negation are much more categorical in stating the positive quality of a person or thing.

Litotes is used in different functional styles, except the so-called matter-of-fact styles like official style and scientific prose. In poetry it is used to suggest that language fails to adequately convey the poet’s feelings. Therefore he uses negation to express the inexpressible.

e.g. My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130).

III: Compositional Patterns of Syntactical Arrangement

In Grammar certain types of utterances have already been patterned. There are all kinds of simple compound or complex sentences that may be regarded as neutral or non- stylistic patterns.

Utterances with peculiar structural design bearing some emotional colouring are considered stylistic syntactical patterns belonging to the expressive means of the language. They should not be regarded as violation of the literary norms of Standard English.