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Do I have to understand the sentence:

It has not been unchanged

.. as if the related subject actually changed, or whether there has been no change at all? In short, is this a double negative?

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  • Please edit your question so that we can understand what you want to know. Both possibilities are grammatically correct, but say different things altogether. If you are not yet aware of our sister site for English Language Learners, you may wish to visit it.
    – tchrist
    Jan 7, 2020 at 2:52
  • As "unchanged* is a status rather than an action, I don't see how it can be used as a verb - as your sentence does.
    – WS2
    Jan 7, 2020 at 9:24
  • As WS2 says, to make this English you would need to say something like "It has not stayed unchanged", or "it has not remained unchanged". What you have right now sounds wrong, but not because it is a double negative, which it is not, and which does not need to be ungrammatical per se. A double negative is when you use two negations to express only one. E.g. "I can't get no satisfaction" to express "I can't get satisfaction". But in your case you are using two negations to express two negations. Which is fine in every language ever. It's just that you're using them like no native speaker would.
    – RegDwigнt
    Jan 7, 2020 at 10:19

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