--- title: Not unhappy and not half: litotes — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Not unhappy and not half: litotes», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Litotes (say it LIE-toe-teez) is a special kind of understatement: you say something good by saying «not» plus its opposite. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / Not unhappy and not half: litotes # Not unhappy and not half: litotes Lesson 50 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/0/) — Litotes (say it LIE-toe-teez) is a special kind of understatement: you say something good by saying «not» plus its opposite. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/1/) — «I'm not unhappy with that» means «I'm happy»; «not too shabby» means «rather good». - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/2/) — Picture Mum reading Jack's school report, full of «very good» and «excellent», and saying with a little smile: «Well, I'm not unhappy with that». - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/3/) — She is pleased, but saying it the long way round sounds modest and a bit funny. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/5/) — «Not unhappy» is happy; «no small thing» is a big thing; «not a million miles away» is close. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/7/) — Litotes is understatement made with «not» or «no» plus the opposite word: «not bad» for good, «not unhappy» for happy, «no small thing» for a big thing. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/8/) — «Well, I'm not unhappy with that» means «I'm pleased»; the two negatives (not, un-) cancel out. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/9/) — «That's not the worst idea you've had» is a dry way of saying «good idea»; a smile and «let's do it» show what Dad really means. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/10/) — «He's not the brightest» means «he isn't clever»; playing it down makes it sound gentle, but it is still a put-down, so it is not kind to use about classmates. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/11/) — «It's not exactly warm in here» means «it's cold»; «not exactly» plus a word often means the opposite of that word. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/13/) — «She's no stranger to trouble» means she knows trouble very well, because she often gets into it. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/14/) — «Did I enjoy it? - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/15/) — Not half!» is old British slang for «yes, very much»; it sounds like a no but means a big yes. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/16/) — «I wouldn't say no to a biscuit» is a polite yes, so pass the biscuits. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/17/) — «You're not a million miles away» means you are close: a guess of 80 when the jar holds 85 is close. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/18/) — «That was no small thing» means it was a big and brave thing to do; it is praise. - ← previous: [A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/) - next →: [Just a scratch and I'm fine: when to worry and tell an adult](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/51-just-a-scratch-and-i-m-fine-when-to-worry-and-tell-an-adult/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)