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Sun 10 Sep, 2017 01:53 am
Hi.
Here is a sentence kinda puzzling to me, a Korean eager to learn English.
- We don't like the fellow a great deal.
The confusing part is,
Does mean that
1. We actually like him but not much. Or
2. We hate him so much.
Which one's correct?
You know, the phrase 'not necessarily' is, like, not one hundred percent, right?
The sentence 'I don't like all of them.' means
I like most of them, but it doesn't mean that I like every one of them.
I wonder if this thinking is true of the sentence shown above.
I'd appreciate any comment.
Thank you.
Adding "a great deal" or "very much" to a negative statement such as the one you described weakens the negative meaning, but does not cancel it.
If you don't like something very much you weakly dislike it; if you dislike something very much you strongly dislike it. I don't like beans very much, but I'll eat them if there is nothing else; I dislike cabbage very much, and I will never eat it.
In addition to what Centrox has said, it can also be an ironic statement. It can mean that we really don't like the fellow at all, that we despise him, that we detest him. This is something that one would only judge in spoken English, it would not be apparent in written English. The irony lies in the fact that one doesn't like the fellow at all, but one is saying it in a manner which is only obviously derogatory when one can see the speaker and read his or her expression and body language.
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:It can also be an ironic statement. It can mean that we really don't like the fellow at all, that we despise him, that we detest him.
British speakers are particularly prone to this way of expressing a negative. Your father is not very happy that you dented the car. The fertilizer factory does not smell very nice.
Also, as Setanta points out, context matters, and the subject of the degree of liking. If I say I don't like a person very much, I usually mean I don't like them at all. There is a kind of taboo against expressing dislike of a person directly. This does not always apply to other topics. If I say I don't like a food or drink very much, it might mean that I am neutral about it or might reluctantly eat or drink it if there was nothing else.