Answering negated polar questions in English

[Chuma]

A girl I used to know, from the US, had a habit of using "yes" to confirm negative questions, and vice versa, which is the opposite of what I'm used to. If I asked "so you didn't see her today?" and she said "no", she meant that she did see her. I know this is how it works in Japanese, but I can't recall hearing it from any other USians. Is this a common phenomenon, or had she just been reading too much manga?

[faiuwle]

Actually, I think for me either "yes" or "no" as an answer to that question would have to mean "no, I didn't see her". If you wanted to mean "yes, I did" you would have to go with "no, I did" or "yes, I did". But yeah, the "yes" answers seem a little strange to me.

[Ziz]

For me:

A: So you didn't see C today?
B: No.

That means B didn't see C. I don't think I would say "yes" alone at all in this circumstance, because it leads to ambiguity. However, if I wanted to say that I did see C, I would say either "Yeah, I did," or "No, I did."

I guess this is one of those weird instances when yeah = nuh-uh.

[Travis B.]

I normally respond to these the conventional way, but I typically use "yes, I did" (or like) versus "no, I didn't" (or like), to make it clear what I mean by yes or no, lest the other person misunderstand my response.

[Jetboy]

Yeah, this generally confuses me so much that I just say "right" if the speaker is correct, or follow up with a clause; for example, the answer "no" would be perfectly acceptable in most circumstances, but is often followed up with "he/she/it/they/etc. didn't/doesn't/etc." for clarity's sake.

[Jipí]

In German I'd use this very useful little word doch, but in English you could only negate the negation unambiguously with I did (right, as suggested above would work for me, too), because no would be affirmation of it (i.e. Yes, I didn't) according to my language instinct, and yes is ambiguous.

[Gray Richardson]

"So you didn't see her today" is really a statement not a question. If you indicated by your intonation that you were seeking confirmation, then I, as an American, would probably respond "Yes. I did not see her." Though, I might also respond "Correct."

If I had in fact seen her, I might respond: "No, I did see her." Though, I might also respond "Actually, I did see her."

However, depending on your intonation, which word you stressed, I could see myself possibly answering differently. If you stressed "didn't" then I'd be more likely to respond "Yes, I didn't." But if you were to instead stress "see" or "today" I might respond "No, I didn't."

If you instead phrased it as a question "Didn't you see her?" I'd probably respond "No, I didn't" or "Yes I did."

Regardless, I would probably not answer with a simple yes or no, but would elaborate for clarity's sake.

[Radius Solis]

I agree that "So you didn't see her today?" is a request for confirmation of a statement, and assuming a neutral or normal tone of voice, that any single word you answer with will supply that confirmation: either "yes" which confirms the correctness of the statement, or "no" which confirms the polarity of the statement. To contradict the statement you need either need to supply more than just a yes/no, or else you need to say "no" with a tone of voice that implies contradiction. (It is not possible to clearly contradict it by saying "yes" no matter what tone of voice you use.)

[Civil War Bugle]

I answer the same way as the girl mentioned, which seems like the most intuitive method of answering to me. Some people I talk to frequently have caught on to this and specifically take it into account.

[Yng]

'So you didn't see her today?' - 'No' = 'I didn't see her today'
'So you didn't see her today?' - 'Yes' = a non sequitur
'So you didn't see her today?' - 'No, I did' = 'I saw her today'

[Nortaneous]

IMI:

'So you didn't see her today?' - 'Right' = 'I didn't see her today'
'So you didn't see her today?' - '[Yes/No], I did' = 'I saw her today'

[Lyhoko Leaci]

To me:

"So you didn't see her today?" - "No" = "I did see her."
"So you didn't see her today?" - "Yes" = "I didn't see her"
"So you didn't see her today?" - "No, I did" = "I did see her"
"So you didn't see her today?" - "No, I didn't" = "I didn't see her"
"So you didn't see her today?" - "Yes, I did" = "I did see her," but sounds odd.
"So you didn't see her today?" - "Yes, I didn't" = "I didn't see her," also sounds odd.
"So you didn't see her today?" - "Right" = "I didn't see her."

[Astraios]

Me too! Disclaimer: I very rarely say either "yes" or "no", instead using various combinations of [m], [m] with some kind of pharyngeal/glottal constriction, and intonation to indicate my response.

If I did not see her:
"So you didn't see her today?" - Short "No". Or a lengthened "Yeah" with falling intonation.

If I did see her:
"So you didn't see her today?" - "No" with level-dipping-rising intonation. Or "Yeah" with dipping-rising intonation.


I seem to be abnormal. =\

[finlay]

I seem to be abnormal. =\

Not really, just nobody else is taking prosody into account. It's difficult to on the internet, granted, but it's probably more important than the actual content of the words.

People who answer in the """"logical"""" way where a double negative must necessarily be a positive piss me off because they're being semantically infelicitous and generally obtuse.

[zompist]

I'm pretty sure I'm in the "No" = "didn't see the girl" camp.

OK, if I'm counting right, that's 7 people who'd interpret "No" as not-seeing, 3 as seeing. Plus a fair consensus that "Yes" is avoided.

I also agree that intonation makes a difference. This is what we'd expect from conversational analysis: an answer that confirms the first speaker is a preferred response and thus will be short and simple. So I don't take Astraios's falling-rising "Nooooo" as a counter-example— the lengthening is a pragmatic signal that it's a dispreferred response (it contradicts the first speaker).

I'm tempted to put this in the "recordings or it didn't happen" category. It's confusing enough that I'd really like to see what people actually do, rather than what they report they'd do.

(In addition to German's doch, French has si for this case. Languages that repeat the verb, like Brazilian Portuguese, also solve the problem neatly.)

[finlay]

I'm tempted to put this in the "recordings or it didn't happen" category. It's confusing enough that I'd really like to see what people actually do, rather than what they report they'd do.

main reason i didn't give a proper answer

[Ulrike Meinhof]

In addition to German's doch, French has si for this case.

I once accidentally translated Swedish jo to 'yo' when speaking English. That turned out pretty hilarious.

[Chuma]

My original example was actually in internet conversations, so no intonation there. Might be part of the reason why it was confusing. Still, there seems to be some differences among the speakers here. I can't remember where everyone is from, but is there also possibly a difference between US/UK/etc.?

[finlay]

pretty sure there's not.

[maıráí]

"So you didn't see her today?"

"No." (I didn't see her today.)
"Yeah." (I didn't see her today.)
"Yes." (I did see her today.)

[Bedelato]

"So you didn't see her today?" - "Yes" = I didn't see her, but sounds odd
"So you didn't see her today?" - "No" = I didn't see her
"So you didn't see her today?" - "Right" = I didn't see her
"So you didn't see her today?" - "Yeah, I did" = I did see her
"So you didn't see her today?" - "Yeah, I didn't" = I didn't see her, but sounds odd
"So you didn't see her today?" - "No, I did" = I did see her, but sounds odd
"So you didn't see her today?" - "No, I didn't" = I didn't see her

[Zapcon]

"So you didn't see her today?"

"nope" = didnt see her
"correct" = didn't see her
"incorrect, i did" = did see her

This is when im talking in person and rarely when i am typing something. sometimes i just say:

"nope" = didnt see her
"naahh, i did" = did see her

this is when i am talking in person to other teens or something

[Chargone]

i've heard a whole bunch of different ways to answer this question, but the usual response here abouts seems to be to simply not treat it as a yes/no question at all and give a more elaborate answer (though various 'yes' 'no' 'nooo' type things do still happen)

personally i avoid asking question in the negative in the first place because the result is confusing, and will always give a more specific answer (and often a big spiel about how doing that is unhelpful) when asked such.

[treskro]

I actually reply "no" to both, but with a change in intonation.

"So you didn't see her today?" - No, falling tone = No, I didn't see her today.
"So you didn't see her today?" - No, rising tone = No....I did see her...

[vec]

Icelandic uses jú, like Swedish jo.