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from the black-and-white-and-grey-all-over dept.
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
(Score: 3, Informative) by Katastic on Friday June 19 2015, @08:30PM
From what I remember of Spanish, many languages allow multiple negatives that don't ... negate each other. Instead of flipping the sign, they reinforce it. "I'm not never going to give you my money to you, mugger." Would mean "I'm REALLY SERIOUS about not handing my money over." Double, and even triple negatives exist in Spanish.
I may be wrong, or missing some context, so definitely do some fact checking before you start telling people around the watercooler. But I still think it's a neat distinction from English.