Encyclopædia Britannica (1984) Micropædia VI, p. 266. "Litotes". The word litotes is of Greek origin, meaning "simple," and is derived from the word litos meaning "plain, small or meager".
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In Latin, an example of litotes can be found in Ovid's Metamorphoses: "non semel" (bk. 1 ln. 692, "not one occasion"), meaning "on more than one occasion". Some common words are derived from litotes: "nonnulli" from "non nulli" ("not none") is understood to mean "several", while "nonnumquam" from "non numquam" ("not never") is used for "sometimes".
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For examples see antiphrasis and sarcasm. For the use of double negations or similar as understatements ("not unappealing", "not bad", etc.) see litotes.
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I trust you are not in too much distress. A subtype of understatement is litotes, which uses negation: Heatwaves are not rare in the summer.
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In rhetoric, litotes (,OED s.v. or ; also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour) is a figure of speech and form of verbal irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, often incorporating double negatives for effect. Litotes is a form of understatement, more specifically meiosis, and is always deliberate with the intention of emphasis. p.680 However, the interpretation of negation may depend on context, including cultural context.
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In Swedish, it is quite common to use litotes. For example, when one chances to meet someone after a long time it is usual to say: "Det var inte igår" ("It wasn't yesterday").
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The sonnet is made up of two quatrains and two tercets of hendecasyllables. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, ABAB, CDE, CED. In the poem we can find enjambments, alliterations, apostrophes, synecdoches, anastrophes and a litotes.
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The first known mention of litotes is in a letter from Cicero in 56 B.C. Cicero uses the word to mean simplicity (or frugality) of life. Over time, however, the meaning and the function of the word changed from 'simple' to the idea of understatement that involves double negatives, a way to state things simply. Litotes is also found in the New Testament to assert an affirmative by negating the opposite. In Acts 12:18, for instance, Luke says there was “no small commotion” among the soldiers over Peter’s absence from prison.
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Litotes can be used to establish ethos, or credibility, by expressing modesty or downplaying one's accomplishments to gain the audience's favor. In the book Rhetorica ad Herennium litotes is addressed as a member of The Figures of Thought known as deminutio, or understatement. It is listed in conjunction with antenantiosis and meiosis, two other forms of rhetorical deminutio. For example, a very accomplished artist might say "I'm not a bad painter," and by refraining from bragging but still acknowledging his skill, the artist is seen as talented, modest, and credible.
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The Assyrians did not simply choose shiny metal; they worked to make it so. The word hints at a military machine. Other tropes that may be used to increase the level of allusion include irony, litotes, simile, and metonymy (particularly synecdoche).
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Neubauer, p. 8 Over half the poems in Shaker focus on love (specifically its inevitable loss) and doomed relationships.Neubauer, p. 11 Critic William Sylvester states that the metaphors in Angelou's poetry serve as "coding", or litotes, for meanings understood by other Blacks.
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In Classical Greek, instances of litotes can be found as far back as Homer. In Book 24 of the Iliad, Zeus describes Achilles as follows: "οὔτε γάρ ἔστ᾽ ἄφρων οὔτ᾽ ἄσκοπος …" (line 186), "he is neither unthinking, nor unseeing," meaning that he is both wise and prudent.
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In French, "pas mal" (not bad) is used similarly to the English, while "il n'est pas antipathique" ("he is not disagreeable") is another example, actually meaning "il est très sympathique" ("he is nice"), though you don't want to admit it. Another typical example is "Ce n'est pas bête!" ("It's not stupid"), generally said to admit a clever suggestion without showing oneself as too enthusiastic. (As with all litotes, this phrase can also be used with its literal meaning that the thing is not stupid but rather may be clever or occupy the middle ground between stupid and clever.) One of the most famous litotes of French literature is in Pierre Corneille's Le Cid (1636).
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In speech, it may also depend on intonation and emphasis; for example, the phrase "not bad" can be intonated differently so as to mean either "mediocre" or "excellent". Along the same lines, litotes can be used as a euphemism to diminish the harshness of an observation; "He isn't the cleanest person I know" could be used as a means of indicating that someone is a messy person. The use of litotes is common in English, Russian, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ukrainian, Polish, Mandarin, French, Czech and Slovak, and is also prevalent in a number of other languages and dialects. It is a feature of Old English poetry and of the Icelandic sagas and is a means of much stoical restraint.
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The primitive koa finch (Rhodacanthis litotes) is a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper. It was endemic to Hawaii. Of the four species in the genus Rhodacanthis, it and the scissor-billed koa finch became extinct before the arrival of the first Europeans to Hawaii in 1778. It is known as the ancestor of all koa finches.
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Because of their constructive character, a statement such as It's not the case that it's not raining is weaker than It's raining. The latter requires a proof of rain, whereas the former merely requires a proof that rain would not be contradictory. This distinction also arises in natural language in the form of litotes.
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Understatement is a form of speech or disclosure which contains an expression of lesser strength than what would be expected. It is the opposite of an embellishment. The rhetorical form of understatement is litotes in which understatement is used for emphasis and irony. This is not to be confused with euphemism, where a polite phrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression.
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The ironic form of simile, used in sarcasm, and some forms of litotes can emphasize one's meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of the truth, denies the contrary of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.Muecke, DC., The Compass of Irony, Routledge, 1969. p. 80 Other forms, as identified by historian Connop Thirlwall, include dialectic and practical irony.
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Understatement (litotes) is used at least 94 times in the Old English poem Beowulf, a "high frequency". This "stylistic mannerism" is considered by Frederick Bracher to be inherited from "an earlier, possibly common-Germanic, poetic tradition"; he notes that understatement is also found in mediaeval German poetry and Old Norse poetry. Such understatement may have the effect of mocking irony, humour, emphasis, and the tempering of an (otherwise rather sharp) expression.
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Dykes published numerous sermons, book reviews and articles on theology and church music, many of them in the Ecclesiastic and Theologian.Cory, pp. 303 et. seq. These display considerable erudition and wit (not to mention a penchant for damnation by faint praise and a fondness for litotes and gentle sarcasm), especially on the topics of the Apocalypse, the Psalms, Biblical numerology and, unsurprisingly, the function of music and ritual in the service of the church.
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Poil de carotte (En: Carrot Head or Carrot Top) is a long short story or autobiographical novel by Jules Renard published in 1894, which recounts the childhood and the trials of a redheaded child. It is probably in this miserable childhood story where one should look for the origins of Renard's skepticism and irony, his skill in using litotes, his dense and precise style, and his harsh method of observation. The story unfolds in a series of short sketches.
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The metaphors in her poetry serve as "coding", or litotes, for meanings understood by other Blacks, although her themes and topics are universal for most readers to understand. Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie has received mixed reviews from critics but was a best-seller. Many critics expected that the volume would be popular despite their negative reviews, but others considered it well written, lyrical, and a moving expression of social observation.
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Both were large birds; R. flaviceps measured , while R. palmeri was in length. The combination of a giant bill with brightly colored plumage (yellow for R. flaviceps, orange for R. palmeri) gave the males a very striking appearance. Koa seeds were the preferred food for the two species, but caterpillars were taken if necessary. The two prehistoric species, R. forfex and R. litotes, were denizens of more lowland tropical dry forests and shrublands on Kauai, Maui, and Oahu.
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Two poetic figures commonly found in Old English poetry are the kenning, an often formulaic phrase that describes one thing in terms of another (e.g. in Beowulf, the sea is called the whale road) and litotes, a dramatic understatement employed by the author for ironic effect. Alternative theories have been proposed, such as the theory of John C. Pope (1942), which uses musical notation to track the verse patterns. J. R. R. Tolkien describes and illustrates many of the features of Old English poetry in his 1940 essay "On Translating Beowulf".
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The metaphors in her poetry serve as "coding", or litotes, for meanings understood by other Blacks, but her themes and topics apply universally to all races. Angelou uses everyday language, the Black vernacular, Black music and forms, and rhetorical techniques such as shocking language, the occasional use of profanity, and traditionally unacceptable subjects. As she does throughout her autobiographies, Angelou speaks not only for herself, but for her entire gender and race. Her poems continue the themes of mild protest and survival also found in her autobiographies, and inject hope through humor.
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The first written study of the Kanoê language available today, dates back to 1943 when Stanislav Zach published a vocabulary of the Kanoê tribe, which was later updated in 1963 by Cestmír Loukotka. A preliminary report of the phonological features of the Kanoê language was published by Laércio Bacelar in 1992, with a second report and an analysis of the phonology published in 1994. Bacelar and Cleiton Pereira wrote a paper on the morphosyntax of the language in 1996. And in 1998 a paper on the negation and litotes of the language was published by Bacelar and Augusto Silva Júnior.
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Sylvester says that Angelou uses the same technique in "Letter to an Aspiring Junkie", in which understatement contained in the repeated phrase "nothing happens" is a litotes for the prevalence of violence in society. Hagen connects this poem with the final scene in her second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name, which describes her encounter with her friend, a drug addict who shows her the effects of his drug habit. According to Hagen, the poem is full of disturbing images, such as drugs being a slave master and the junkie being tied to his habit like a monkey attached to the street vendor's strap. Hagen calls Angelou's coding "signifying" and states, "A knowledge of black linguistic regionalisms and folklore enhances the appreciation of Angelou's poems".
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In Kierkegaard's words, from On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates: > [Socratic] irony [is] the infinite absolute negativity. It is negativity, > because it only negates; it is infinite, because it does not negate this or > that phenomenon; it is absolute, because that by virtue of which it negates > is a higher something that still is not. The irony established nothing, > because that which is to be established lies behind it... Where much of philosophy attempts to reconcile opposites into a larger positive project, Kierkegaard and others insist that irony—whether expressed in complex games of authorship or simple litotes—must, in Kierkegaard's words, "swallow its own stomach". Irony entails endless reflection and violent reversals, and ensures incomprehensibility at the moment it compels speech.
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In her poem "Sepia Fashion Show" in Diiie, for example, the last lines ("I'd remind them please, look at those knees / you got a Miss Ann's scrubbing") is a reference to slavery, when Black women had to show their knees to prove how hard they had cleaned. Sylvester states that Angelou uses this technique often in her poetry, and that it elicits a change in the reader's emotions; in this poem, from humor to anger. Sylvester says that Angelou uses the same technique in "Letter to an Aspiring Junkie", also in Diiie, in which the understatement contained in the repeated phrase "nothing happens" is a litotes for the prevalence of violence in society. Hagen calls Angelou's coding "signifying"Hagen, p.
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For example, creek in Australia, as in North America, means a stream or small river, whereas in the UK it is typically a watercourse in a marshy area; paddock in Australia means field, whereas in the UK it means a small enclosure for livestock; bush or scrub in Australia, as in North America, means a wooded area, whereas in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs). Litotes, such as "not bad", "not much" and "you're not wrong", are also used, as are diminutives, which are commonly used and are often used to indicate familiarity. Some common examples are arvo (afternoon), barbie (barbecue), smoko (cigarette break), Aussie (Australian), Straya (Australia) and pressie (present/gift). This may also be done with people's names to create nicknames (other English speaking countries create similar diminutives).
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Neubauer states that Angelou focuses on the lives of American Black people from the time of slavery to the 1960s, and that her themes "deal broadly with the painful anguish suffered by blacks forced into submission, with guilt over accepting too much, and with protest and basic survival". Critic William Sylvester states that the metaphors in Angelou's poetry serve as "coding", or litotes, for meanings understood by other Blacks. In her poem "Sepia Fashion Show", for example, the last lines ("I'd remind them please, look at those knees / you got a Miss Ann's scrubbing") is a reference to slavery, when Black women had to show their knees to prove how hard they had cleaned. Sylvester states that this is true in much of Angelou's poetry, and that it elicits a change in the reader's emotions; in this poem, from humor to anger.
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