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

[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.