I've taken Amtrak quite a bit this year, and one phrase I've heard a lot is quite irritating. Conductors often say, "At the next stop, all doors will not open. Exit where you see a uniformed member of the crew."
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But what the conductor is actually saying is "At the next station, NONE of the doors will open."
While I agree that is clumsy phrasing, I have to disagree that the opposite of "all" is "none". The opposite of "all" is "not all" which can be "some" or even "most".
Kind of like the way that "not guilty" does not mean "innocent"
Actually, the phrase is indeed wrong, not just clumsy. In this case, the error is a "misplaced modifier". The modifier modifies the word it is closest to, so its placement in the sentence is essential.
You argue that the negation of "all" is not "none".
That's true. But in the Amtrak sentence, because of the misplaced modifier, "not" is modifying the verb, not the subject. The negation is to "open" not to "all".
So, what's the opposite of "open"? I'm going to suggest that the opposite of "open" is "remain closed". Because of the misplaced modifier, the Amtrak conductor is actually saying:
"At the next stop, [all] doors will [remain closed]."
To correct the phrase, the modifier needs to be placed correctly. That means it needs to do what you're suggesting, and negate "all".
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Let's look at some examples:
I almost missed every flight I ever booked.
I missed almost every flight I ever booked.
These sentences mean two different things. The first means that while it was close each time, I've never missed a flight. The second sentence means that of all the flights I've booked, I've only made a few of them.
We could move the modifier to other places and create other meanings, too. For example:
I missed every flight I almost booked. - Doesn't really make sense, because in this case, the speaker never actually booked those flights.
Or, to use your example:
- "The jury found the defendant [not guilty]." -- The jury acquitted the defendant.
- "The jury did [not find] the defendant guilty." -- The jury did not acquit the defendant, nor did they find him guilty. They did not come to a consensus.
- "The jury found the defendant innocent." -- The jury acquitted the defendant.
As you can see, sentences 1 & 3 have the same meaning. As far as grammar is concerned, "not guilty" is the same as "innocent". Legally, however, there is a distinction. "Not guilty" means a court has acquitted someone. "Innocent" means they actually did not commit the crime. But juries
never find someone innocent. They only find "guilty" or "not guilty".
Regardless, in the case of Amtrak, the problem is not with determining the opposite of all, (the difference in this example between 1 & 3), it's with determining where to place the modifier (the difference between 1 & 2).
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So, let's take a closer look at the incorrect Amtrak phrasing:
"At the next stop, all doors will not open."
We can discard the prepositional phrase at the beginning (At the next stop), as it's not germane to this discussion.
The remaining phrase has a subject: "
all doors" and a verb: "
open". The modifier "not" is closest to the verb open, which means that's what it modifies. That reverses the meaning of "open".
Let's think about rephrasing the sentence slightly:
"At the next stop, all of the doors will not open."
This means the same as the Amtrak phrasing. I've just added "of the" to the sentence. Is it now clear that [all of the doors] are doing the [not opening]?
But if we move the modifier, we get this sentence:
"At the next stop, not all of the doors will open."
Now it's perfectly clear that [some] (the opposite of "not all") of [the doors] will be doing the [opening].
You are perfectly correct that the opposite of "all" is not "none". However, the problem with the Amtrak sentence is that "not" is
NOT modifying "all". It's modifying "open". And the opposite of "open" is "not open". Let's substitute "remain closed" for "not open".
For example:
"At the next stop, all doors will [remain closed]"
You could fix this sentence two ways:
- "At the next stop, some doors will [remain closed]." --OR-- "At the next stop, some doors will not open."
- "At the next stop, [not all] doors will open."