¿Ha hablado o no?

[ookami]

Yes, it is illogical, because the logical sentence is positive, irmamar saw me: "En mi vida he visto a Ookami [cinco veces/veinte, indeterminadas veces, etc]" But it's an idiom ... :P The negative way has a singular tone...

[hermit]

Right - one of those things found in any language, totally colloquial usage,
understanding of the real meaning quite sublime...

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Perikles: it's not illogical, it's an ellipsis: "(nunca) en la vida he dicho eso"


Thread title corrected to "hablado"

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@Perikles: it's not illogical, it's an ellipsis: "(nunca) en la vida he dicho eso" "

That is outrageous . How could you ellipse the word that produces an opposite sense? You could make anything 'logical' with that explanation: I love you with an ellipsed don't.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

But not really... the words of "nunca en la vida" are so often tied together, that we can afford to lose "nunca"... not the same case of "(no) te quiero".

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Because the sentence does not have a single negative in it, but the sense is negative. This is totally illogical, and something that makes me despair.

But this () shows you rather angry...

Don't you know how many things are illogical in English that the rest of the world has just to adapt and that's it. And here in the US, they tell you "welcome to the US!" with a big smile.

Go figure...

[JPablo]

Perikles, this is "idiom-city". That's where learning the language is learning these tricky-tricky idioms. Idioms have their logic (derivation/evolution meaning... as Malila explained to you.)

Moliner,
En la [mi, tu, etc.; toda la] vida. = Nunca.
DRAE,
en la vida, o en mi, tu, etc., vida. 1. locs. advs. Nunca o en ningún tiempo. U. para explicar la incapacidad o suma dificultad de conseguir algo.

Oxford Bilingual,
en la/mi vida:
¡en la or en mi vida he visto cosa igual! = I’ve never seen anything like it in my life!;
¡en la or mi vida haría una cosa así! = I’d never dream of doing something like that!;
en mi perra vida lo he visto = I’ve never seen him in my life

But,
En la vida nos pasan estas cosas would not normally be understood as the idiom. Same with my following example.
En la vida hay muchos misterios que quedan sin resolver.

What is then the sense in my last example?
En la vida le vuelvo a dirigir la palabra... ¡habráse visto desfachatez!