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Negation to a negative sentence | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 25 of 33 02 October 2012 at 9:36am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Sorry about not being clear. Yeah, basically the question is a sentence with a question marker at the end. The question marker asks "Is the preceding sentence correct or incorrect?" And the answer is "It's correct" or "It's incorrect". So
- You haven't eaten breakfast, correct? - Correct! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4656 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 26 of 33 02 October 2012 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Czech works similar to French - Ty jsi nesnídal? (You didn't eat breakfast?) Ne, nesnídal. (No, I didn't) / Ale ano, snídal. (But yes, I did).
It may be possible to say in positive "Ano, snídal." (Yes, I did) but it doesn't sound natural. Another feature of Czech on similar note are multiple negatives in sentence - the famous example is "Nobody is perfect" from Some like it hot, which has to be translated "Nikdo není dokonalý" - with two negatives in the sentence (Nobody isn't perfect). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5016 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 27 of 33 02 October 2012 at 11:39am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Are you trying to put people out of languages learning with those negative questions ?
As my biology teacher told me - don't tell me what it is not - tell me what it is. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 28 of 33 02 October 2012 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5225 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 29 of 33 02 October 2012 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Shouldn't that one have been "Aren't you trying to put people out of languages learning with those negative questions?"? ;)
I love how German, Russian and French have these 'disambiguating' words to contradict the previous sentence and we still manage to ask questions / answer them in ways that are still ambiguous yet perfectly natural -- I can think of no better way to show just how messy human thought can be generally... :) And it doesn't even need to be a negative answer to a negative question: -¿No has desayunado? [Didn't you have breakfast?] -Sí. [Yes -- you can't be sure the speaker means you're right and [s]he didn't, or that you're wrong and he did, that little devil's probably got a mischievous smile on his face] Edited by mrwarper on 02 October 2012 at 3:11pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5559 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 30 of 33 02 October 2012 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I'm afraid you have been living in Korea too long, as you seem to have forgotten how to speak English "Didn't you have breakfast?" (assumption that you didn't) "Did you not have breakfast?" (rarer, but identical) "You had breakfast, didn't you?" (assumption you did, with tiny bit of doubt) And I'd reply, "Yeah, I didn't have time." or "No, I had it." (You are Korean) (but if they said "You skipped breakfast, didn't you" then your replies would make sense) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 31 of 33 05 October 2012 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I agree with this. "didn't you have breakfast" is really asking "you had breakfast, didn't you?" That's why "yes" means "yes, I had breakfast."
No, it's verifying that they did have breakfast. If I ask my friend "didn't you have breakfast today?" it's because I assume he did but I want to make sure. Example: Friend: "Man, I'm hungry right now." Me: "didn't you have breakfast today?" (implying that I thought he had breakfast and am not sure why he's hungry) The friend could answer either: Friend: "Yes! That's why I'm so surprised I'm hungry again right now!" or Friend: "No! That's why I'm so hungry right now!"
That would be asking for specific emphasis that he did not have breakfast. For example: Friend: "Man, I'm hungry right now." Me: "why, did you not have breakfast today?" (implying that if he is hungry, it must be because he didn't have breakfast)
Right.
No, those answers are backward. You'd reply back: "Yeah (I did have breakfast)" or "No, I didn't have time." Edited by IronFist on 05 October 2012 at 5:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Eternica Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5071 days ago 24 posts - 74 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English*, French Studies: Hungarian, Spanish | Message 32 of 33 06 October 2012 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Wow, I feel like no one answered the question directly.
The main thing is that in negative questions: saying just "yes" or "no" is potentially ambiguous (though it tends to be yes = action done, no = action not done). If I ask someone "Didn't you eat yet?" and he or she said "yes", I would 99% respond with "Yes, you haven't... or no, yes you did?" So the answer is: there is no definite answer. On the other hand, if the person says "no", then the intonation might help you deduce that the person hasn't eaten yet. The point is that one would usually add extra information. Ambiguities such as this is why responses such as "si" exist in French, "de" (or "de igen") in Hungarian, etc. Now, Cantonese is like Korean: the word 係 (haai6) does NOT mean "yes". It signifies agreement (like 네/ne). In this sense, the words "yes/no" do not exist in Cantonese. You answer mostly by reduplicating the verb (like in Irish, if you guys are curious about more language links).
Indeed, it is better to just reduplicate the verb to signify agreement/disagreement. The other responses sound a bit weird (or at least less common) to me. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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