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Chalk hat 862 Posted 6 years ago
Grammar

Ain't nobody a chicken about nothing

Hi.

I'm a little confused about the meaning of this sentence:

"Ain't nobody a chicken about nothing."

Does it mean that everyone is afraid of something, or that that person isn't scared of anything at all?

Thank you.

  

Top answer

I am forming a theory that English is unique in that the meaning of a word or a sentence depends on the context it is used in. In other languages, it seems that a detached phrase or word can only mean one thing, and the grammar is such that there is only one setting for it. This sentence, for example, seems like a rejoinder to an accusation of cowardice, spoken by an illiterate who inexplicably retains the "g" in his "-ing" endings.

— Anonymous

  • I am forming a theory that English is unique in that the meaning of a word or a sentence depends on the context it is used in.
  • In other languages, it seems that a detached phrase or word can only mean one thing, and the grammar is such that there is only one setting for it.
  • This sentence, for example, seems like a rejoinder to an accusation of cowardice, spoken by an illiterate who inexplicably retains the "g" in his "-ing" endings.
  • However, that is only a guess, and it might well be from an early Modern English play, which used double negatives, and "ain't" was mainstream at one point.
  • The trouble is, if that is the case, I don't know what he might have meant by "chicken", which now means "cowardly".
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2 Answers
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I am forming a theory that English is unique in that the meaning of a word or a sentence depends on the context it is used in. In other languages, it seems that a detached phrase or word can only mean one thing, and the grammar is such that there is only one setting for it. This sentence, for example, seems like a rejoinder to an accusation of cowardice, spoken by an illiterate who inexplicabl

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chalk hat 862

Hi.

I'm a little confused about the meaning of this sentence:

"Ain't nobody a chicken about nothing."

Does it mean that everyone is afraid of something, or that that person isn't scared of anything at all?

Thank you.

More likely it means, "I'm not afraid of anything", i.e., your second guess.

There's not eno

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