In which Amy speaks Japanese

[pne]

IIRC, Japanese hai means not yes as in English, but "the assumptions of your question are correct".

This makes a difference when you ask a negative question; if you have problems carrying something and someone asks you, “Can’t you carry it?”, the usual answer in English is, “No[, I can’t]”, whereas Japanese would use “Hai[, you are correct: I can’t]”.

Amy, on the other hand, tends to answer such negative questions with, “Yes,” which is a bit unexpected.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

A lot of English speakers answer negative questions with yes. This is why I feel negative questions are best avoided and when answering them, it is best to clarify and not just give a yes or no answer. You can't trust a yes or a no, because I see both regularly used to mean either toward negative questions.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

This is actually the norm in Indian English. It would be so much clearer if we all adopted the Hiberno-English feature of answering questions by repeating the verb!

[pne.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of a video I saw on YouTube where they interviewed an Irish woman (who lived in New Zealand IIRC), and she consistently used the "repeat-the-verb" strategy -- but it looked to me as if she was doing it for effect rather than because it came naturally to her all the time. (A couple of times it seemed to me as if she had to stop briefly and make sure she repeated the verb rather than answering "yes" or "no".)

[pne.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we need a separate word that means "no, you're wrong, I *do* (whatever)" like German "doch" or French "si".

Then "ja/oui" can stay for the "you're right, I don't (whatever)" meaning.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

I think German "nein" is ambiguous, too, at least when you talk to people who think you they validly reply to negative questions by using "ja" and "nein".

[pne.livejournal.com]

Hm, point.

Perhaps we need four words: "I do", "I don't", "you're right", and "you're wrong" (roughly).

Or just repeat the verb, as in Irish.

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

Hai is yes. There are two ways one could respond to the question "can't you carry it." One would be "Hai, so desu(-yo)" which would "yes, that's correct." (Literally, "yes, it is." Adding -yo makes it more effeminate and is likely the way a woman would phrase it while a man would not.) The other would be "Iie, hakobanai imasen"* which would be "no, I cannot carry it" or "Iie, takusan omoi desu" meaning "no, it's very heavy/cumbersome."

Japanese, however, tends to not phrase sentences negatively when possible. So it'd be more correct to ask "can you carry it?" rather than "can't you carry it?"

Basically, if you ask a question in a negative, it's perfectly reasonable for the responder to answer affirmatively if they are simply informing you that you are correct. If they want to give a more involved answer, it must also be stated in the negative.

So, Amy is not entirely incorrect to give you an affirmative answer to a negative question. She's just not giving you the rest of it... which conversationally is fine. Generally, to "superiors", you'd complete the sentence though. :P


*My conjugation may not be quite correct here, since this is third year/quarter material, which I'm in right now, but the sentiment of the statement in relation to my answer would be correct. (negative, involved answer to negative question)

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

On a side note, thanks for posting something that makes me practice. :P

[camomiletea.livejournal.com]

This is similar to Russian, as well. I was so confused what to say when people ask me a negative question like "You don't mind [smth], do you?", because I want to say "Yes", meaning "sure, I don't have a problem with that".

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

This is probably common among toddlers, but Maggie sometimes says "no" when she means "yes," as in:
Me: Let's have burritos for lunch
Maggie: No
Me: Are you sure?
Maggie: No (meaning "yes.")