# A factoid that is neither true nor false

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-factoid-that-is-neither-true-nor-false/319577>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 1, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-factoid-that-is-neither-true-nor-false/319577 "2005-09-01T13:13:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-factoid-that-is-neither-true-nor-false/319577/21 "2005-09-01T16:03:34Z")

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> [@Xema](#):
>
> A longer and clearer form of the correct answer would be “No - to have stopped beating her, it would be necessary for me to have started.”

Yers, but you could be more succinct with “I’ve never beaten my wife.” If your interrogator insists on a yes-or-no answer, ignore him.

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-factoid-that-is-neither-true-nor-false/319577/22 "2005-09-01T17:45:17Z")

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There’s a good book which deals with this whole issue (implicature), and others: _Pragmatics_, by Stephen Levinson (1983, Cambridge University Press). Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that addresses propostional values and truth values in communication, as well as other interesting things.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-factoid-that-is-neither-true-nor-false/319577/23 "2005-09-01T19:51:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> According to Discordians the correct answer to such questions is mu pronounced moo, see the Zen question “does a dog have buddha nature?”

As popularized in Douglas Hofstadter’s logic-math-philosophy classic _Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid_. But I think that the more contemporary English answer would be “Huh?”. As in:  
“Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”  
“Huh?”

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**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-factoid-that-is-neither-true-nor-false/319577/24 "2005-09-02T02:12:14Z")

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Another good book on this subject is _Everything That Linguists Have Always Wanted to Know about Logic (but Were Afraid to Ask)_ by James McCawley.

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