This week for my ENGL 512 class, we had a ‘workshop’ day where we met with our group partners wherever we liked. It does not have to be in class. So we did not have our usual class where we would have class discussions and activities. However, my group still decided to meet in the room during the time the class usually meets. On my way to the room, I met another classmate taking the same course. He saw me right before I got into the elevator to go to the third floor where the room was at. He asked me, “We don’t have a class today, right?” and I spontaneously said “Yes!”. That moment he looked so confused and looking at his reaction I suddenly realized my mistake. I quickly said, “I meant no! No, no!” and laughed.
In this situation, the question was in the negative form. In Indonesian, if the response of a negative question is positive, the response would be “No”. If the response is a negative, it would be a “Yes”. To better illustrate this, below is an example question and the responses in Indonesian and English.
However, if the question is in the affirmative form, the response made in Indonesian is different.
As we can see, the response made by Indonesians depend on the form of the question. Additionally, the response and supplement to response is not equal or linear in Indonesian when the question is in negative form. This is similar to the analysis of Yes/No responses in Korean by Kim (1962).
Kim, S-H. P. (1962). The meaning of yes and no in English and Korean. Language Learning, 12(1), 27-45.
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