XIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2021

Litotes is a figure of speech featuring a phrase that utilizes negative wording or terms to express a positive assertion or statement. Litotes is a common literary device, most often used in speech, rhetoric, and nonfiction. As a figure of speech, the meaning of litotes is not literal. Instead, litotes is intended to be a form of understatement by using negation to express the contrary meaning. This is a clever use of language in its combination of negative terms as a function to express a positive sentiment or statement.

Litotes is a form of ironic understatement. An understatement can be any expression that minimizes the importance of something. Understatement and litotes both invoke a certain restraint or stoicism when describing something. However, the definition of litotes is much more specific than that of understatement. Litotes only refers to the negation of one quality to emphasize its opposite. If a person is “not unimaginative,” this negation of the negative quality “unimaginative” implies that the person is, in fact, imaginative.

Litotes is a device used to state an affirmative without direct use of affirmative wording. For example, the phrase “I don’t hate it” reflects use of litotes. In this case, juxtaposing the negative words “don’t” and “hate” function together to indicate the opposite meaning or affirmative. In saying “I don’t hate it,” the speaker is actually affirming the sentiment “I like it.” However, since the speaker does not directly say “I like it,” the affirmation is mitigated and downplayed. The use of litotes in this case reflects the speaker’s intention to state a positive without directly affirming it or being too complimentary. Instead of expressing “like” for something, litotes in this case expresses an absence of hate.

Litotes is commonly used as an understatement or ironic figure of speech. It is a successful device in that it affirms a positive statement or sentiment typically through the use of double negatives. Here are some common examples of litotes you may find in everyday conversation:

The novel is not bad.

You’re not wrong.

I can’t disagree with your logic.

Litotes is a common device used in rhetoric. This is primarily because it prompts a listener or reader to carefully consider what is being said. Litotes also allows the speaker or writer to effectively communicate in an atypical way.

Writers often utilize figures of speech to create a specific effect for the reader. As a figure of speech, litotes resembles understatement due to the fact that the intended meaning of the phrase or sentence seems less significant through negative wording. In this way, litotes serve a purpose for writers as method for expressing modesty, discretion, or verbal irony by making a statement about what “is” by stating what “is not.”

When creating litotes, it’s important for writers to understand the proper use of double negatives. Essentially litotes is similar to a double negative in the sense that it features juxtaposition of negative terms to express a positive. However, double negatives are often considered improper or incorrect grammar. As a literary device, litotes does not feature incorrect or improper grammar. As a result, writers can effectively use litotes as a means of expressing understatement to their readers through a form of double negative. However, it must be grammatically correct.

Like any figure of speech or literary device, it’s important for writers to not overuse litotes. Incorporating frequent litotes can be distracting, tiresome, and repetitious for a reader. This results in a loss of effectiveness for this form of figurative language.

Litotes is not utilized frequently as a literary device in literature. However, it is featured in some important literary works as a means of gaining a reader’s attention and expressing meaning in an understated way. Here are some examples of litotes in literature and the way they influence the meaning of the literary work:

Not seldom from the uproar I retired

Into a silent bay, or sportively

Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng,

To cut across the image of a star

That gleam’d upon the ice

‒ The Prelude: Book 1: Childhood and School-time (William Wordsworth)

In his poetic work, Wordsworth utilizes litotes by pairing the words “not” and “seldom.” This negation implies that the poet means “often” by stating “not seldom.” In this way, he creates a sense of understatement about the frequency with which he separates himself from a crowd or busy environment to appreciate images and the presence of nature. Wordsworth’s use of litotes as a literary device creates a sense of poetic language and introspection for the reader as well as the poet himself. Therefore, paradoxically, by understating how often the poet escapes into nature, it actually emphasizes the importance of the action. The litotes allows the escape to become significant for the reader as well.

Litotes examples have been found in many different languages and cultures. The usage of litotes was important in works such as the Bible, the Iliad, and in Old Norse sagas. Authors and speakers use litotes for many reasons, one of which is to display restraint or display modesty in describing something amazing rather than boasting of how incredible it is. Litotes may also be used to downplay enthusiasm or as a witty way of making the reader understand the opposite sentiment to the plainer one being expressed.

The famous British author George Orwell disliked the use of litotes, and mocked their usage in his essay “Politics and the English Language.” He encouraged readers to eschew them in favor of more direct statements, writing, “One can cure oneself of the not un- formation by memorizing this sentence: A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field.” While Orwell was responding to certain grievances he had with written English in his day, he perhaps neglects the historical significance of litotes.

References:

Galperin I.R. English Stylistics. Moscow, 2014. – p. 246-249

Обидина Н.В. Stylistics. Московский педагогический государственный университет, 2011.

В.В. Гуревич. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка; учеб, пособие — 3-е изд. — М.: Флинта: Наука, 2008.

ШаховскийВ.И. English Stylistics. М.: Либроком, 2013.