I couldn’t not care less what you think. 
[quote=“daasgrrl”][quote=“Tetsuo”]
Also:
[/quote]
Now, see, that actually makes no sense. “I couldn’t give a fly f*ck?” That picture’s in Chinglish! 
[/quote]
Hey, they only say a picture’s worth a thousand words, they never said what that picture says is necessarily grammatically correct 
Coming from you, BFM, I’m touched… insulted… Touched. Insulted. Oh, let’s just agree I’m ‘touched’ and leave it there, shall we? 
(Yes, pun intentional for those of you playing English Quibble at home 
)
Of these two…(1) A descriptive approach to language describes in full detail precisely how we use that language. The chief values of this approach are accuracy and an unretouched picture of usage, warts and all. (2) A prescriptive approach insists that however many variables might be found, there are better and worse choices; it will specify at least which is most appropriate, more likely which is acceptable, or, in its most rigorous application, which is correct…I prefer descriptive.
To each his own. 
The only point not covered in this brilliant group analysis thus far is the role of phonology. Could ends with the voiced stopped sound of “d” which is made with the tip of the tongue immediately behind the top front teeth. When you add “n’t” to “could” all you are adding is two more sounds that are made with the tongue in the same position. T is also a stop. In the rough and tumble world of daily spoken usage, “could” became an acceptable alternative to “couldn’t” in this particular expression, mainly because “could” and “couldn’t” sound pretty similar. (huh waddya say could/ couldn’t ?) Shortly after that it began to show up in written form and was accepted or not depending upon the literal mindedness of the people involved. Personally I wouldn’t even be likely to notice it unless i was writing and then I would probably say “could care less” if I was attempting to sound casual.
[quote=“Vannyel”]“Not” as in what BFM? For a double negative?..
http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/023.html
Ophion,
Logic according to you? It makes perfect sense to millions of North Americans…and most of them, myself included know when to use a double negative and when not to.[/quote]
It makes perfect sense to lots of stupid people in the UK too 
I’m with Ophion on double negatives. They can be used logically, but very rarely are.
‘I could care less’ requires a preceding word or two if it is to mean the same as ‘I couldn’t care less’. ie ‘Like’ or ‘As if’
Acceptable to slobs only.
Hmm, yes, that’s true.
Irregardless…
Oh, fuck you. Yes, it is wrong, but I’ve heard plenty of Brits, Aussies and New Zealanders say it.
[quote]What about:
I didn’t do nothin’ or I ain’t got nothin’?[/quote]
Definitely wrong, but I kinda like it.
And don’t you hate it when people write ‘kinda’ or ‘wanna’?
Well butcher boy and others…
In case you’ve missed this development over the past couple of centuries, the majority of the English speaking world doesn’t speak standard English as set down by the prescriptive guidelines.
As for stupid, butcher boy, what is your criteria to judge someone as stupid? Whether they speak English the way you think they should?
No let’s see, I know…if they are leaders of nations, university professors, owners of multinational companies, on one of Forbes magazine’s many list…all these people and more have used double negatives so therefore they must be stupid, right? :loco:
Seems to be a lot of prescriptive armchair linguists taking part in this thread. Prescriptive linguistics went out with the grammar-translation method, didn’t it?
Language doesn’t follow our prescriptive rules, regardless of how much we might want it to. I prefer to take a descriptive approach. Whatever people say to communicate, as long as they do actually communicate, is a correct, though perhaps not standard, use of language. How can you claim otherwise? If the sharing of messages is the goal, and one’s word choice, syntax, and pronunciation achieves that goal, then how can you say it is incorrect? If you don’t understand someone’s dialect, it doesn’t mean their dialect is wrong, it simply means you don’t understand it.
Now, if NOBODY understands what you’re saying, then you’re clearly not making sense.
Must I list some of the thousands of idiomatic expressions that fly in the face of prescriptive rules and yet that we use daily to communicate?
Of course, there are standard dialects and forms of expression, and that’s what teachers are expected to teach. My students ask me about expressions they hear all the time that do not follow ‘rules’ and yet that are indeed common. Rather than telling them those expressions are incorrect, I tell them they are non-standard.
[quote=“Vannyel”]Well butcher boy and others…
:loco:[/quote]
oooh er! hit a nerve 
I guess for some people 1–1 = 0?
Oh, fuck you. Yes, it is wrong, but I’ve heard plenty of Brits, Aussies and New Zealanders say it.[/quote]
Don’t believe you 
I don’t agree. I think that the English language is incredibly rich and offers a boundless variety of words, phrases and sentence patterns with which we can express almost anything we wish to in a clear, precise and beautiful way without needing to discard conventional usages. That’s not to say that I oppose people playing with the language and stepping outside the bounds of “correct usage”, but I don’t accept that the language is a poor instrument of expression when we choose not to do so.
I could care less, but to reach such a level of insouciance would require an almost infinite degree of credulity.
Proto-humans descended from the trees and ventured onto the savanna. Some time later, people said, “I could care less…”
It’s all good. Ain’t no thang. Just evolution.
Two views on the subject from “authorities”:
http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifcouldcareless.shtml
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/care.html
URL’s curtesy of good ole www.alta.vista.com. It still excells in isolating and finding phrases set off in " ". An excellent way to check on sentences or paragraphs submitted by students that smack of plagiarism.
Not anywhere near as much as I hate it when people write shit like “u no” for “you know”.
That’s not to say that I oppose people playing with the language and stepping outside the bounds of “correct usage”, but I don’t accept that the language is a poor instrument of expression when we choose not to do so.[/quote]
I did not mean to suggest that English is a poor instrument of expression without such usages - I would agree that you can express anything you want to within the bounds of correct usage - BUT that such usages add nuances of meaning not necessarily found within the usual parameters of ‘textbook’ English.
Firstly, I was trying to point out the distinction between written and spoken English. “Hello.” That wasn’t a proper sentence by textbook terms, despite my use of the period, but is perfect spoken English and hence I can present it as a “sentence” of spoken English.
Secondly, things such as dialects and exact replication of people’s speech which may break many rules of ‘proper’ English add a lot of drama and colour to literature. Otherwise, every conversation would be as though between English professors - certainly capable of full expression, but without any variation of colour. Choosing to remain within the bounds of ‘correct’ expression is as much an expression of self as stepping outside those boundaries - consciously or not. If a character in a novel says, “I didn’t do nothing” you would have a different mental image from a character who said, “I did no such thing!” Could the first speaker have expressed the same sentiment using correct English? Definitely. Does his speech however convey something additional about himself by the way he said it? I say that it does. That’s the distinction I was making.
Back to the subject…
IMO, Tetsuo identified it correctly as sarcasm. Sarcasm being something which means something other than its literal meaning, and usually the opposite. “I could care less” is predominately used in a sarcastic/ironic fashion, and therefore is completely correct in that usage ie meaning the opposite from its literal meaning. This puts it in a different category from ‘double negatives’, so it’s no use arguing it from that perspective.
(I disagree with the guy from mwalimu’s article who claims that ‘I couldn’t care less’ already drips sarcasm. That’s not sarcasm - it’s merely exaggeration.)
I hope those of you who disagree have never said ‘Yeah. Right.’
I think it conveys a certain level of stupidity if he is claiming that he did nothing 