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Lapsed_Lurker comments on Tidbit: “Semantic over-achievers” - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: kpreid 01 December 2011 03:49PM

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Comment author: Lapsed_Lurker 01 December 2011 05:50:20PM 2 points [-]

Why say "never fails to disappoint" if what you mean "is reliably excellent"?

You probably meant something more like 'never fails to excite' or some antonym of 'disappoint'. Perhaps a good example of using too many layers of negation causing confusion.

Comment author: MixedNuts 01 December 2011 11:51:57PM 1 point [-]

Nancy was quoting the review given as an example of shooting yourself in the foot with too many layers in the linked Language Log post. The author of this review meant "is reliably excellent" and wrote "never fails to disappoint".

Comment author: Lapsed_Lurker 02 December 2011 01:07:38AM 1 point [-]

D'oh!. If I'd read the linked content first, I'd have understood the context that was being quoted there.