I am aware that when answering a negative question, the answer varies depending on the country, language, and culture.
Example:
Would you like to die? -> No, I don’t.
So you don’t want to die? -> No, I don’t. (In the US.)
An acceptable answer to the above in another country is: Yes, I don’t.
My question: For Americans, does the Yes/No part of the answer even matter? For the above question, would both “No, I don’t” and “Yes, I don’t” be acceptable?
I’m pretty sure that without the “I don’t” part, Yes means “I do,” and No means “I don’t.”
Other examples:
So you don’t want a million dollars? -> No, I do./Yes, I do.
I can’t borrow your car? -> Yes, you can’t./ No, you can’t.
You don’t want a free house? -> No, I do./Yes, I do.
You don’t want your dog to die? -> No, I don’t./Yes, I don’t.
“Yes, I don’t” makes no sense to this American. If you don’t want it, why are you starting off with “Yes”?
So you don’t want a million dollars? -> Yes, I do.
I can’t borrow your car? -> No, you can’t.
You don’t want a free house? -> Yes, I do.
You don’t want your dog to die? -> No, I don’t
My answer would be a statement of what I do or don’t want. I would ignore the Yes or No portion of a seemingly confusing question.
Q: Have you stopped beating your wife?
A1: I still beat her
A2: I never have beat her
A3: I’ve finished for this session but she better be ready for round 2 as soon as I take a shower and have something to eat
of course, that is an inconsistent statement.
negation, double negation, negation with affirmance, etc. are the most annoying parts of conversation with people. Like Zeldar, I almost always need to /desire to use a follow up question, constructed far more elegantly than a lazy, ultimately indeterminate “you don’t want” negative inference question, to confirm or deny true intent.
“Yes, I don’t” is not used normally in the US. I can only imagine it rising up in a situation of confusion.
“So you don’t like anchovies on your pizza?”
-“Yep.”
“You mean, yes, you do like anchovies, or yes, you don’t like anchovies on your pizza?”
-“Yes, I don’t.”
But this sounds like someone being deliberately confusing or at least using a very odd turn of phrase.
However, I’d certainly use (the oft-studied) “Yeah, no.” in the sense discussed by the OP.
“So you don’t like anchovies on your pizza?”
-“Yeah, no.” (ie, indeed - I do not like anchovies)
“Yes, I don’t” in answer to a negative question sounds completely wrong and confusing to my ears. It may be logically correct (in that, I affirm my desire not to die), but this doesn’t reflect the way I’m used to hearing the construction in my dialect of American English.
Thinking over how I would respond and understand such responses, it sound awkward and confusing to mix “yes” with “I don’t” or “no” with “I do”.
“Don’t you want that?” gets the same answer as “Do you want that?”
Basically, if it’s a yes or no question, whether posed in positive or negative, we answer as if the question did not use a negative. It makes things much less ambiguous than answering both positive and negative at the same time.
I would equate it to using “isn’t it?” to form a question (or the French “n’est-ce pas?” or German “nicht?”).
D
I varies by region as well. In southern New England, you sometimes hear people use “So don’t I” as an affirmative.
person a: “I love canndlepin bowling”
person b: “So don’t I!”
That is just flat out wrong to my ears and logic but I have had people either try to explain why it is perfectly correct or they don’t understand the issue in the first place.
The common answers around here (CT) and where I grew up (Cleveland OH) would be “Yes, I do” or “No, I don’t.” You occasionally hear people answer a negative question like those proposed with “Yes … I don’t” I’ve even done it myself. Usually it is a “yes” followed by a pause and a more emphatic “I don’t” so the meaning is clear. Often it is “Yes … I don’t want _______” with the question part repeated.