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Indeed. >"Do you not have X?" In my head it sounds belligerent and accusatory. While the other form sounds polite. This negative phrasing to induce a positiv

Indeed. >"Do you not have X?" In my head it sounds belligerent and accusatory. While the other form sounds polite. This negative phrasing to induce a positive response, may be a Japan only thing?

galaxyLogic 3y ago
It's interesting, it somehow means you are agreeing with them if they don't have it, so they don't have to feel so bad about not having it.
- _g0wg 3y ago
  I'm from Appalachia and we have the same thing, and yeah at least for us it's like you're agreeing with them that they don't have it. "Do you not have bananas?" is like "is it true that there are no bananas?". Then if there are bananas, the host can gleefully surprise you with them and feel like they solved a problem for you. This is only if it's said in a constantly upwardly-shifting tone, though. It can be said another way, same words different tone, which sounds more like "how perplexing, there's no bananas, let me just make sure I didn't miss them because I thought they should be here". The host usually backs their answer up with an explanation of why there are no bananas. A third form exists where it does sound accusatory. Like "you should have bananas you piece of crap". Usually said in a huffy puffy I-dont-have-time-for-this tone.
  - galaxyLogic 3y ago
    I read somewhere that a good negotiating strategy is to start with something that both can agree to.
    - satvikpendem 3y ago
      Speaking of negotiating, the book Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss who was an FBI hostage negotiator is an incredible book that showed me how compromising may not always be in one's best interest (because, given his experience, you can't compromise on only having X hostages be killed).
- guythedudebro 3y ago
  Interesting. Maybe more like a "You don't have x, right?" than a "do you not have x?"
contravariant 3y ago
It's probably more like "You wouldn't happen to have any X?". I assume the idea is that you put the emphasis on the asker being the one to ask a silly question if they indeed don't have it. Maybe it also helps that all the sentence markers that make a sentence polite, negative, interrogative all get added on to the end (to the verb) in japanese, which probably makes the construction slightly less awkward. In this case it may go something like motsu (to have) -> mochimasu (to have, polite) -> mochimasen (to not have, polite) -> mochimasenka (to not have, polite, interrogative). I'm making a lot of assumptions here though, I don't know if this is anywhere close to correct.
pulsarmx 3y ago
"Do you guys not have phones?"
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Indeed. >"Do you not have X?" In my head it sounds belligerent and accusatory. While the other form sounds polite. This negative phrasing to induce a positive response, may be a Japan only thing?

galaxyLogic 3y ago

It's interesting, it somehow means you are agreeing with them if they don't have it, so they don't have to feel so bad about not having it.

_g0wg 3y ago
I'm from Appalachia and we have the same thing, and yeah at least for us it's like you're agreeing with them that they don't have it. "Do you not have bananas?" is like "is it true that there are no bananas?". Then if there are bananas, the host can gleefully surprise you with them and feel like they solved a problem for you. This is only if it's said in a constantly upwardly-shifting tone, though. It can be said another way, same words different tone, which sounds more like "how perplexing, there's no bananas, let me just make sure I didn't miss them because I thought they should be here". The host usually backs their answer up with an explanation of why there are no bananas. A third form exists where it does sound accusatory. Like "you should have bananas you piece of crap". Usually said in a huffy puffy I-dont-have-time-for-this tone.
- galaxyLogic 3y ago
  I read somewhere that a good negotiating strategy is to start with something that both can agree to.
  - satvikpendem 3y ago
    Speaking of negotiating, the book Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss who was an FBI hostage negotiator is an incredible book that showed me how compromising may not always be in one's best interest (because, given his experience, you can't compromise on only having X hostages be killed).
guythedudebro 3y ago
Interesting. Maybe more like a "You don't have x, right?" than a "do you not have x?"

contravariant 3y ago

It's probably more like "You wouldn't happen to have any X?". I assume the idea is that you put the emphasis on the asker being the one to ask a silly question if they indeed don't have it. Maybe it also helps that all the sentence markers that make a sentence polite, negative, interrogative all get added on to the end (to the verb) in japanese, which probably makes the construction slightly less awkward. In this case it may go something like motsu (to have) -> mochimasu (to have, polite) -> mochimasen (to not have, polite) -> mochimasenka (to not have, polite, interrogative). I'm making a lot of assumptions here though, I don't know if this is anywhere close to correct.

pulsarmx 3y ago

"Do you guys not have phones?"

deleted 3y ago

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