{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T03:47:26Z","timestamp":1777434446170,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,11]],"date-time":"2017-09-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1505088000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Argument &amp; Computation"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Litotes, often confused with meiosis and understatement, has long suffered neglect. By comparing synonymous key words in previous definitions, this essay defines litotes as \u201ca trope in which an affirmative is expressed by the negation of its opposite,\u201d and for the first time classifies litotes into three subtypes based upon Aristotle\u2019s study of opposition: contradictory, contrary and relative. Focusing particularly on the strong contradictory type of litotes and its realization in The Analects of Confucius, with its nearly one hundred double negation litotes, we find they prominently serve the logical functions of achieving high probability, providing a sophisticated major premise, and elaborating strict definitions. Further, the essay argues that this strong argumentative function in logic leads to litotes\u2019 epistemic power, a promising dimension for future research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3233\/aac-170029","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,12]],"date-time":"2017-09-12T11:13:07Z","timestamp":1505214787000},"page":"253-266","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["The argumentative litotes in\n                    <i>The Analects<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Ying","family":"Yuan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215006, China. E-mail:\u00a0"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref001","unstructured":"Aristotle, Rhetoric, Random House, New York, 1954. 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