Re:reply to a negated selbri

["xahlee.org" <yahoo@xahlee.org>]

I kind of prefer for lojban to choose an interpretation/grammar as to stick to the so-called logical response to negated questions. That is, answer whether the question is true or false. Apparently this is not the case.

Can anyone explain a bit why lojban choose to be the way it is? How do i view it in a positive light? :)

thanks to all who helped.

 Xah
 xah@xahlee.org
 http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/more.html

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John Cowan wrote:

xahlee.org scripsit:

> * it is not well-known how average English speaker responds to negated
> question. (assuming that average English speaker does in fact respone
> in one way.)

Well, it's well-known to native speakers, who are primarily the ones addressed.

> So for example, if someone asks:
> 
> This is not white?
> 
> and i wanted to reply that it is white, i think average English speaker
> would answer "yes". (more likely: "that's right!").

Not at all.  The answer would be "no" in this case, i.e. "No, that is not
white".  The presence of "not" in the question is completely disregarded.
In the other case, one says "It *is* white", as "Yes" by itself would be
confusing: one might instead say "On the contrary".

This pattern varies from one language to another.  In Russian and
Japanese, one replies "logically":  "yes" means "Yes, that is not white",
and "no" means "No, that is white".  In French and German as in English,
"non/nein" means "No, that is not white", but the affirmative form is different
from the regular affirmative ("si" instead of "oui" in French, "doch"
instead of "ja" in German).

> According to the "What is lojban" paragraph cited above, if we have
> a conversation thus:
> A: "xu ti na blabi"
> B: "na go'i"
> 
> what B is means is that "it is not white". Am i right here?

Yes, you are right.