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posted by [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com at 12:40pm on 07/05/2009
Oh, it depends on the tone of voice! In a cheery tone of voice, "not bad, not bad at all" can mean "perfect" :) Whereas, grudgingly "not bad, I suppose" can mean "minimum conceivably acceptable". I'm not sure which I use more often. (It can probably also vary with context, but I'm not sure how.)

I'm sure I've had hilariously unhelpful conversations where I've tried to clarify "not bad" or "ok" by exaggerating the tone of voice...
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posted by [identity profile] didiusjulianus.livejournal.com at 12:43pm on 07/05/2009
This is basically what I was going to say. It is generally somewhere between less-than-terrible and less-than-brilliant IMO, exact location depending on tone, context, etc.
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posted by [identity profile] karohemd.livejournal.com at 01:36pm on 07/05/2009
*nods* I agree that context can change the meaning.
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posted by [identity profile] rochvelleth.livejournal.com at 03:42pm on 07/05/2009
Fourthed!

For me, a tone of surprise indicates it is better than I expected, or if I stress the 'bad' bit then I mean it's somewhere on the worse side of the average between good and bad. You see, in English we're left pretty much with just the intonation to give a clue to the illocutionary force of the utterance...

Argh, too much pragmatics teaching lately!
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