A question where 'yes' and 'no' both mean the same thing

[drewtwo99]

So as I was laying awake in bed the other night, I was thinking about the question, "Can you hear me?"

If the person responds yes, then they were answering truthfully and can hear you. If they respond with no, they are being a wise ass and are effectively signalling that they can hear you. The only way to respond with a negative to this question would be to say "what?" and even then, the person might just be pulling your chain.

But anyhow, it's clear that both a yes and a no response to the above question effectively mean yes.

Are there any other questions you can think of where both yes and no as a response would carry the same meaning? Is there a name for this type of thing?

[TerpBE]

"Could you give me an example of a one syllable word?"

[snailboy]

Originally Posted by TerpBE

"Could you give me an example of a one syllable word?"

If they say no to that, it could mean they don't know what "syllable" means so yes and no wouldn't necessarily mean the same thing. If you said it in imperative form, "give me an example of a one syllable word," then a response of either yes or no would have to be an example (unless they misheard the question) but then it technically doesn't answer what the original poster asked because it's not a question.

[SpyOne]

Originally Posted by snailboy

If they say no to that, it could mean they don't know what "syllable" means so yes and no wouldn't necessarily mean the same thing. If you said it in imperative form, "give me an example of a one syllable word," then a response of either yes or no would have to be an example (unless they misheard the question) but then it technically doesn't answer what the original poster asked because it's not a question.

I took a class on communication for work, and just before the test the teacher was doing a quick review for us, which we took a bit too literally.
See, an "open-ended question" was defined for us as a question that cannot be answered with "yes" or "no".
Teacher: "Give me an example of an open-ended question."
Student: "Why?"
Teacher: "Is this an open-ended question?"
Class: "No."
Teacher, now laughing: "Is this that I am about to say an open-ended question?" I think by then we were all laughing so hard she didn't actually ask it.

[Skammer]

Not exactly what you mean, but when I proposed to my wife she said, "No way!" which meant "Yes, and I can't believe you asked me."

[The Other Waldo Pepper]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

Are there any other questions you can think of where both yes and no as a response would carry the same meaning? Is there a name for this type of thing?

Demetri Martin does a bit in his stand-up routine about how you get the exact same response when answering "yes" or "no" to the question "Are you ticklish?"

[muldoonthief]

Are you asleep?

Are you awake?

[pravnik]

"If I told you that yes means no and no means yes, what would you say if I asked you if you wanted me to hit you?"

[begbert2]

I recently sent a person an email asking if they were dead. I think that counts, for similar reasons to the 'awake' question.

Also, to the question "Do you think that other woman is pretty?", both answers mean you're in trouble.

[Punoqllads]

Originally Posted by begbert2

Also, to the question "Do you think that other woman is pretty?", both answers mean you're in trouble.

The correct answer is, "What woman?"

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by Punoqllads

The correct answer is, "What woman?"

Fail. The correct answer is, "Not as pretty as you, darling."

[Punoqllads]

Originally Posted by KneadToKnow

Fail. The correct answer is, "Not as pretty as you, darling."

"Oh, so you were looking at her. Why do you always look at women? I can't believe I ever agreed to marry you; mother was right!"

[BluePitbull]

Originally Posted by begbert2

I recently sent a person an email asking if they were dead. I think that counts, for similar reasons to the 'awake' question.

Also, to the question "Do you think that other woman is pretty?", both answers mean you're in trouble.

Why would NO be a wrong?

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by BluePitbull

Why would NO be a wrong?

Because it means you were looking.

[snailboy]

Originally Posted by KneadToKnow

Because it means you were looking.

It also may make her think you're lying. It's better to say, "She looks alright..." or something along those lines.

[robert_columbia]

Are you going to answer this question with a lie?

[tdn]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

So as I was laying awake in bed the other night, I was thinking about the question, "Can you hear me?"

If the person responds yes, then they were answering truthfully and can hear you. If they respond with no, they are being a wise ass and are effectively signalling that they can hear you.

Very slight hijack -- I can picture scenarios where a "no" could be the truth. On a phone call with a faulty connection, for instance.

[Hail Ants]

Actually, agreeing with any 'negative' by answering with a no is incorrect. As in:

"You mean you're not going?"

You should answer, "Yes, I'm not going", but instead everyone inevitably says, "No, I'm not going".

[[Undecided] Adrian]

Originally Posted by Hail Ants

Actually, agreeing with any 'negative' by answering with a no is incorrect. As in:

"You mean you're not going?"

You should answer, "Yes, I'm not going", but instead everyone inevitably says, "No, I'm not going".

That's because with all its pilfered vocabulary, English is still missing an important word, like French si or German doch, meaning the opposite of both yes and no.

[Ashley Pomeroy]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

Are there any other questions you can think of where both yes and no as a response would carry the same meaning?

"That chap with the squeaky voice, Jon Anderson, didn't he used to be in... what was the name of that band? Rush?"

"YES!"

"He was in Rush?"

"NO!"

"You just said he was in Rush."

"NO! YES!"

"Well, make up your mind."

Etc. You could string it out indefinitely. Like the old MST3K sketch where Mike says that he likes Japanese theatre. Noh theatre specifically:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa-Kx5M-8Ak

[ClintO]

This post reminds of Abbot and Costello... Who's on first?

[drewtwo99]

Originally Posted by ClintO

Who's on first?

Yes! And What's the name of the guy on second

[Jasper Kent]

Q: "Do you know the last name of that English poet from the early 1900's? Alfred..."

A: "Noyes."

[Švejk]

So a lot of these have to do with the answerers capacity to answer, and the secondary information that the answer tells you. Another example is

'do you ever lie?'

Then, of course, there's a separate set of questions of which 'do I look fat in this dress' is the best example

[begbert2]

Originally Posted by Švejk

So a lot of these have to do with the answerers capacity to answer, and the secondary information that the answer tells you. Another example is

'do you ever lie?'

Then, of course, there's a separate set of questions of which 'do I look fat in this dress' is the best example

Don't forget the third category where one or both of the answers "yes" and "no" are being interpreted as something other than their usual affirming/rebuffing meanings, like in post 2 or the one about the band.


And I pondered the 'do you ever lie' question, but the answers don't have quite the same meaning; if you answer the question in the affirmative it will be taken as you saying that you think you're REALLY honest, and if you answer in the negative you will be taken as not having that kind of ego/self-delusion.

[SmartAlecCat]

Reminds me of this joke:

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day. "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative.

However," he pointed out, "there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."

[begbert2]

And that joke reminds me that in a general sense, a sufficiently sarcastic 'no' can be mean yes regardless of what the question is.

[panache45]

Originally Posted by Hail Ants

Actually, agreeing with any 'negative' by answering with a no is incorrect. As in:

"You mean you're not going?"

You should answer, "Yes, I'm not going", but instead everyone inevitably says, "No, I'm not going".

"Yes, We Have No Bananas."

[Blkshp]

Are you incapable of saying yes?

[SDMBKL]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

So as I was laying awake in bed the other night, I was thinking about the question, "Can you hear me?"

If the person responds yes, then they were answering truthfully and can hear you. If they respond with no, they are being a wise ass and are effectively signalling that they can hear you. The only way to respond with a negative to this question would be to say "what?" and even then, the person might just be pulling your chain.

But anyhow, it's clear that both a yes and a no response to the above question effectively mean yes.

Are there any other questions you can think of where both yes and no as a response would carry the same meaning? Is there a name for this type of thing?

Well, there is that English phrase where "No means yes." For example, Person A says, "No, blahblahblah." Person B thinks, "No means yes," so effectively Person B assumes that Person A has replied with a "Yes" instead of a "No". Though, I think in this special scenario, Person B is really in denial of the truth, or is not really paying attention to Person A. :P

[Jamicat]

"...There was yes , Yes, in her eyes..."

But...

SPOILER:

There was no NOSE on her face.

[Muffin]

Q.: What is Jason's last name?

A.: Yesno.

(Yesno is a surname in my region.)

[santorum]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

So as I was laying awake in bed the other night, I was thinking about the question, "Can you hear me?"

If the person responds yes, then they were answering truthfully and can hear you. If they respond with no, they are being a wise ass and are effectively signalling that they can hear you. The only way to respond with a negative to this question would be to say "what?" and even then, the person might just be pulling your chain.

But anyhow, it's clear that both a yes and a no response to the above question effectively mean yes.

Are there any other questions you can think of where both yes and no as a response would carry the same meaning? Is there a name for this type of thing?

WAG Maybe a rhetorical question.

The rhetorical question is usually defined as any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks.

[chacoguy]

Do you want me to rape you?

[Son of a Rich]

Leonard on Big Bang Theory often says "yeah no" for some reason.

[tellyworth]

That's common in Australia too: "yeah, yeah, yeah.. nup."

[ftg]

(31 posts in and no one mentions "Have you stopped beating your wife?")

Originally Posted by Son of a Rich

Leonard on Big Bang Theory often says "yeah no" for some reason.

The "yeah" means "I heard you/I understand/I've thought about it.", i.e., a vague acknowledgement and the "no" means ... "no". It's a bit politer than a blunt "no". Leonard doesn't want to seem too direct. (Unlike Sheldon.)

[Kizarvexius]

Here's a conundrum that a linguistics professor of mine presented:

"Is this door unlockable?"

The word "unlockable" is ambiguous, and can mean two different things:

1. incapable of being locked (un-lockable).
2. capable of being unlocked (unlock-able).

If we go by the first meaning, and you respond "yes", that means the door is, in effect, permanently unlocked. If you respond "no", that means the possibility exists that the door is locked.

Going by definition two, a reply of "yes" indicates that someone who possesses the key will be capable of opening the door. A reply of "no" would seem to imply that, no matter what, the door is and will remain locked.

Fun!

[Ashley Pomeroy]

Originally Posted by ftg

(31 posts in and no one mentions "Have you stopped beating your wife?")

That's a different conundrum, though - it's a loaded question, rather than a redundant one. If you actually have beaten your wife, "yes" and "no" would convey two different bits of information.

Yeah, but what if you were playing mixed doubles in tennis? You could say "yes, my backhand isn't what it was". Which would be horrible out of context.

"Yes, until I switched to catgut. Now I beat her all the time."

[Sigene]

Any number of ...
"Do you mind if I.......?"

questions are typically answered 'Yes' colloquially to convey permission or a 'go ahead and do it'. While gramatically and technically a 'yes' would mean 'please don't do it.'


Answering 'No' will convey giving permission also.

[Blank Slate]

If a yes or no answer is meaningless, then essentially they mean the same thing. As in: Why do birds fly?

[SpyOne]

Originally Posted by Son of a Rich

Leonard on Big Bang Theory often says "yeah no" for some reason.

I believe this recent idiom is constructed of a "yeah" to indicate that the speaker has heard and is considering what you have said, and a "no" to indicate that after thought he has rejected your idea, and the joke is that the close pairing of them indicates that rejecting your idea took no consideration at all, that it was so obviously a bad idea that it was pointless of you to even share it.

For instance:
"Perhaps for your anniversary, you should give your wife a crock-pot."
"Yeah ...... no."

[Chronos]

If you were speaking Latin to the ancient Roman equivalent of Michael Phelps, and asked him whether he swims, the answer would be "no".

[Fiendish Astronaut]

Can you say the word 'no'?

[drewtwo99]

Originally Posted by Fiendish Astronaut

Can you say the word 'no'?

Ha! I like that one.

[Leo Bloom]

THE FAN
(Folding together, rests against her left eardrop.) Have you forgotten me?

BLOOM
Nes. Yo.

THE FAN
(Folded akimbo against her waist.) Is me her was you dreamed before? Was then she him you us since knew? Am all them and the same now me?


--Ulysses, Circe


I think this answer trumps all.

[Grestarian]

I had some very clever students of English when I was teaching in Japan for a year.
One afternoon, we spent an hour learning tag-questions (which are much easier to create in Japanese, neh?)

When our time was finished, I sent my students on their way and asked, "That was fun, wasn't it?"

One of the guys told me haltingly, "Yes. That wasn't fun."

I couldn't discern whether he'd learned the lesson or not.

---G?!

The left says "yes"
and the right says "no"
I'm in between
and the more I learn
Well the less that I know
. --Dennis DeYoung (Styx)
. Borrowed Time
. Cornerstone

[Dixieland]

Taking a pragmatic perspective (within the field of Linguistics), all these questions entail something about the content of the sentences themselves or the world. Technically, the concepts at play are called presuppositions and implicatures.

[Elendil's Heir]

Splunge!

[SpyOne]

It occurs to me that the original question, and the additions most like it, are essentially a ping: any reply at all answers the real question, and a lack of reply implies an answer as well.

Which reminded me of a big problem with military IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) systems. These usually use a radio set to respond if it receives a signal on a specific frequency - another vehicle broadcasts a "query", and the friendly vehicle responds.
The problem is that, since you usually can't get the enemy to agree to put units in their vehicles that broadcast a "hey, I'm a bad guy" signal, the system has to equate "Foe" with a lack of response. And there are dozens of reasons why a friendly unit might not respond (interference on the query, or on the response, or damage, or a blown fuse, ...).
So while what one hopes for is a Good Guy/Bad Guy identification system, what one really has is a system that often identifies targets you definitely should not shoot at, and marks all the others as "maybe".

@Santorum: With all due respect to byu.edu (is that Brigham Young University?), they're not 100% correct. While a rhetorical question IS one "asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks", not all such questions are rhetorical. Rhetorical questions are, as they say later in the paragraph, a statement phrased in question form. The asker of a rhetorical question is not seeking any information at all, and is instead looking to impart information, whereas someone who asks "are you asleep" usually IS looking for information.