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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

“Une machine à voler et non à voler”. What kind of negation is the “non”?

It’s a pun, voler means both fly and steal:

A flying machine, not a stealing one

or with the full wording:

A machine to fly through the air, not to steal from your neighbour

Clément Ader was a famous aviation pioneer. Whether he did succeed or not to actually fly enough with his plane for the performance to be accepted doesn’t change that fact.

The wording is actually a pun like :

“It’s a machine to fly… in the air, and not to fly… the danger.”

This kind of negation (see here) is used when we say what is, then what is not.

Il y a un jeu de mots sur voler, avec les deux sens (voler comme un oiseau, ou dérober, tel un voleur).

La négation et non à voler, pourrait se dire et pas à voler

On pourrait dire (ce qui n’a plus aucun humour ni sens):

Une machine pour aller dans les airs, et pas une machine pour dérober.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?