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What Don't You Understand About Yes and No?

posted by cmn32480 on Friday June 19 2015, @02:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the black-and-white-and-grey-all-over dept.

AnonTechie writes:

The words 'yes' and 'no' may seem like two of the easiest expressions to understand in any language, but their actual behaviour and interpretation are surprisingly difficult to pin down. In a paper published in the scholarly journal Language, two linguists examine the workings of 'yes' and 'no' and show that understanding them leads to new insights concerning the understanding of questions and statements more generally.

Floris Roelofsen (University of Amsterdam) and Donka F. Farkas (UC -- Santa Cruz) provide a comprehensive account of 'polarity particles', as these words are called, across languages, and explain the intricate pattern of their distribution. For example, "Yes, it is" and "No, it isn't" are acceptable answers to the question "Is the door open or is it not open?," but not to "Is the door open or is it closed?." Furthermore, the intonation used when pronouncing a sentence can affect whether 'yes' or 'no' are appropriate responses to it.

The original article came from Science Daily, but was also covered by phys.org.

The abstract (full study available to subscribers only) can be found at the Project Muse page from Johns Hopkins University.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @07:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @07:16PM (#198373)

    I hate it when attorneys say "Is it not true that..." It's trying to confuse someone who might not understand how to answer a double negative question.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @07:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @07:55PM (#198399)

    When replying to an attorney, I would be inclined to rephrase (and say) the question in a form that I could easily understand -- then provide an answer to my version.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @07:58AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @07:58AM (#199322)

      To which they might reply "Please just answer yes or no".

      And by then you should have (the balls to say you don't understand the question and have) them rephrase it.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by choose another one on Friday June 19 2015, @07:55PM

    by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 19 2015, @07:55PM (#198400)

    So answer with "No, it is not true that" (or equally, "yes, it is not true that"). They'll soon get bored.