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April 9[edit]

What are some languages where people say "yes" instead of "no"?[edit]

Hi,

In the Philippines and in Vietnam, I've got really confused by this kind of conversation:

- You don't have a dog? - Yes. - Oh! So you have a dog! - No.

Because in Filipino and in Vietnamese, they answer as "Yes, what you said is true, I don't have a dog". What other languages use this logic? 118.71.96.170 (talk) 06:32, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm confused by the question "You don't have a dog?" The more I think about it the less certain I am about what a sensible answer might be if given the choice of only "Yes" or "No". HiLo48 (talk) 06:39, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

For another yes/no question involving a dog see this. MarnetteD|Talk 07:01, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Its a negative declarative question. Does it really seem so ambiguous? Perhaps I'm not thinking through enough alternatives, but I imagine someone visiting a neighbor in an apartment complex with a strict no-pets policy and seeing some dog toys scattered about. They might ask (perhaps in an incredulous or accusatory tone), "You don't have a dog?". The OP suggests that the typical denial in English would be "No.", short for "No, I don't have a dog.", but that in Filipino and in Vietnamese it would be more common to say "Yes.", short for "Yes, you are correct, I don't have a dog." (Did I get that right, 118?)

We have Interrogative#Responses which states:

Responses to negative interrogative sentences can be problematic. In English, for example, the answer "No" to the question "Don't you have a passport?" confirms the negative, i.e. it means that the responder does not have a passport. However, in some other languages, such as Japanese, a negative answer to a negative question asserts the affirmative - in this case that the responder does have a passport. Conversely, in English "Yes" would assert the affirmative, while in some other languages it would confirm the negative.

Some languages have different words for "yes" when used to assert an affirmative in response to a negative question or statement; for example the French si, the German doch, and Danish, Swedish or Norwegian jo.

-- ToE 07:20, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You'll find some technical linguistic literature discussing this issue if you search for "agree-disagree system", "truth-based system" or "polarity-based system". One brief overview (from a conference presentation) is here: [1]. It also contains a list of languages supposedly exemplifying each system. Fut.Perf. su 07:04, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

"Yes! We Have No Bananas". <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 09:45, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you asked this in French, the answer would be "oui" for "yes, that's correct [I don't have a dog]" or "si" for "no, that's incorrect [I do have a dog]". Adam Bishop (talk) 14:07, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

German has a similar doch for an affirmative answer to a negative question. Double sharp (talk) 04:06, 10 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Actually Adam Bishop , the only 2 valid answers to a negative question in standard Parisian French are "Non" and "Si". You cannot use "Oui" as a reply to a negative question, that would be ambiguous and non-standard. "Tu n'as pas de chien?"-->> "Non (, je n'ai pas de chien)", ou "Si (, j'ai un chien)". --Lgriot (talk) 15:15, 14 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Our article on yes and no covers quite a bit too, including the the Early English four-form system. ---Sluzzelin talk 14:25, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There's no "yes" or "no" in Welsh. Q: "Do you have a dog?" A: "I don't".

While in Australia and New Zealand, we have the infamous yeah, no. But it's confined to spoken use (the only time it's ever used in writing, that I've ever seen, is when describing the oral occurrence).

And then we have people who say "No" followed by an affirmative statement. That is, No is used to mean its exact opposite, Yes. I'm sure I've mentioned this here before. It goes something like this: Q. Do you like cricket? A. No, it's great! I can't get enough of it. It seems to denote an even more affirmative Yes than plain Yes. I can't imagine how it ever originated. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 16:55, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

"Do I like it? No, I love it." --Lambiam 21:27, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That's standard usage. They're denying that their feeling for it stops at liking it, but goes much further. In my example, which again may be confined to Down Under, they're not denying anything. They're agreeing with the speaker. I've lived here all my life, but whenever I encounter this usage, I still get momentarily confused. Here's another example: A. I think he really needs his head read. B. No, you're right. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:51, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Could the phenomenon be related to the negation seen in the exclamation "You don't say!"? --Lambiam 06:37, 10 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt it. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 02:16, 13 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

With increasing frequency on American cop shoes, the detectives will arrive and say, "Do you mind if we come in?" and the homeowner will say, "Yes, come on in." <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 17:35, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Lambiam -- I think "You don't say!" is an exclamation of disbelief which was tranformed into an exclamation of amazement, and then weakened. I can't follow your Google Books link, but in the mid-20th-century, there was a classic routine in which a phone rings, a person picks it up, and we hear one half of the conversation, which mainly consists of "You don't say". When the phone call is over, someone asks him "Who was it?" and the punchline is "I don't know; he didn't say"... AnonMoos (talk) 10:33, 10 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Followed by a similar conversation; "Who was it?" "Same guy." – I think I have it on a Spike Jones record. At the moment I do not recall anything else about the track. —Tamfang (talk) 03:42, 24 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

So far I've only heard "Yeah no" from Americans. I once transcribed a conversation in which the younger speaker began every single utterance (none of which were answers to questions) with "Yeah no". — And then there was the interviewee who pronounced yes as "most definitely", even when explicitly uncertain. —Tamfang (talk) 00:55, 11 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Mandarin Chinese also follows this logic, although it usually uses echo responses. In fact, the difference between English and Mandarin Chinese on this one (see Language Log) really confused me as a kid (native speaker of both): for one thing, I always thought the Mandarin Chinese way was more logical (you answer by affirming or negating the question, not the unstated assumption), and I wondered why I kept getting misunderstood when answering yes-no questions in English. ;) Double sharp (talk) 04:00, 10 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There is a joke that a professor explains "In some languages a double negative is a positive. In others it is a negative, but there is no language in which a a double positive is a negative. A sarcastic voice is heard from the back of the class: 'yeah yeah'". --Error (talk) 12:13, 10 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

::The punch-line could also be "Yeah, right"... AnonMoos (talk) 19:14, 10 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Some languages have a distinction between "Yes/no" and "I'm answering in contrary to your assumptions." I'm sure someone could help us remember what linguists call it. Temerarius (talk) 22:52, 10 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]