Re: non-chipped


George E. Cawthon wrote:

Answering yes or no to a question that asks for a
positive or negative response is not rude. E.g.,
Do you have coffee? A simple Yes, is not rude.

That's rather my point.

"Do you have coffee, or not?"
I'll repeat, that is lousy English, not considered
proper because the "or not" is tacked on the end
instead of being properly placed.

-yes- or -no- would be rude because it's a soup or salad question. You
either do have coffee, or do not have coffee. You don't yes coffee or
no coffee, that's not the question. the question is have you, or have
you not coffee.

The question properly is "Do you have coffee?"
That deserves a yes or no answer.

But that wasn't the start of this subthread, the start of this
subthread was something to the effect of "You got this, don't you?".

The question, "Do you have coffee, or not?" is rather illistrating
American conversational english. Is it proper? Hell no! Is it proper
to answer a yes or no to a this or that question? Hell no!

To end this, I say good luck in your endeavors.
Please don't teach English grammar, composition,
or writing.

Yes, you might as well end this, you are, with all due respect, all
over the map. You start off with proper english references, argue it's
not American english, conversational english, or too chatty. At this
point I have NO idea what you are talking about. Are we talking formal
english, english composition, or conversational english.

Where as I have stayed pretty much on the topic of "You don't have it,
do you", illistrating that it's a this or that question, not a yes or
no question, which is common in American english. If you are now going
to argue that it's not proper grammar. Adding -or- "you don't have it,
or do you" makes the question more clear, but as you pointed out that
is far too formal.

But any english class worth it's salt is going to spend time with it's
students expanding contractions, and looking at comma use. The stuff I
covered is mostly from my 5th grade reader, rather elemetory why things
they are the way they are.

Any weirdness you detect is the fact that people like my self tend to
explain these concepts to non-native speakers.

But my point, my entire point is this
"You don't understand, do you!"
Answer: "I do not understand"

To answer yes or no to this question is rude, because as you pointed
out a yes or no answer leads to confusion. It's a this or that
question. Either you "get it" or you "do not get it". Clearly you do
not because while I am talking basic conversational english, a odd ball
throwback to the Nortic influence on early middle english, you seem to
be under the firm opinion that it's either not proper American english,
not proper composed American english, too chatty to be conversational
english, or some other unrealted complaint.

"you have coffee, don't you?"
Answer, "I have coffee" / "Yes I have coffee".
Answer, "I don't have coffee" / "No, I don't have coffee"
Unacceptable answer, "Yes" / "no"

.

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