simon_phlui  +  31076 Wed, 26 May 04 01:54 PM In an English grammar book, it says one of the possible answers to: "Would you mind opening the door?" is: "Certainly." I feel that it means "Yes, I certainly mind", which is unlikely to be an appropriate response. Is that book wrong? Thanks. simon_phlui Joined on Wed, Dec 10 2003 Junior Member 58 Grammar, English Grammar

	Pemmican  +  31077 Wed, 26 May 04 02:03 PM Yeah, you could suggest that - the book is not actually wrong though: While asking this way, the "mind" often just represents a flowery phrase to let it sound more polite. If someone answers with "certainly" in this case, it is correct to assume that he "would mind opening the door", that's what it grammatically expresses - but people usually understand this as a question similar to "Would you open the door, please?" and to this sentence, they would surely answer "Certainly". It's just a matter of incorrect usage in these cases, which are generally accepted. It's quite the same very often with the usage of the double negative. Pemmican Joined on Thu, Aug 21 2003 Regular Member 569 Wâ mag ich mich nu vinden? wâ mac ich mich nu suochen, wâ? nu bin ich hie und bin ouch dâ und enbin doch weder dâ noch hie. wer wart ouch sus verirret ie? wer wart ie sus... Negatives

	simon_phlui  +  31141 Thu, 27 May 04 02:31 AM Thanks for your answer. But if "certainly" can be accepted as an answer, will native English speakers accept "yes" too? i.e. A: Would you mind opening the door? B: Yes. (to indicate "I don't mind") If so, it would mean I can answer both "no" and "yes" to indicate a positive response. Thanks. simon_phlui

	suzi  +  31155 Thu, 27 May 04 07:14 AM Indeed, you can say either yes or no! Both mean "OK I will open the door" Positive responses are more usual as that responds to the meaning of the utterance, where as negative utterances relate more to the surface structure! As you see it is therefore impossible to REFUSE!!! Therein lies a secret of power - manipulating people into compliance by appearing to be very polite! I disagree with the person who said this is "incorrect" usage - that only appleis if you think structure is more important than pragmatics! suzi Joined on Wed, Jan 7 2004 Full Member 465 Negatives

	simon_phlui  +  31172 Thu, 27 May 04 09:44 AM That's interesting! I guess Englishmen are very nice people who hate refusing others' requests. It's in fact very different from my mother tongue, Chinese, which has a similar way of making requests (e.g. Would you mind opening the door?). But if the answer is YES, it means YES, I MIND, hence a negative response. I wonder if any other language works similar to English. simon_phlui Negatives

	Pemmican  +  31194 Thu, 27 May 04 01:53 PM @suzi: "I disagree with the person who said this is "incorrect" usage - that only appleis if you think structure is more important than pragmatics!" I just referred to incorrect structure here - or sooner to the "logical" obstacle in the sentence. Neither do I think that structure is more important than pragmatics - Structure and pragmatics are two subjects of their own which have to be handled separately. Idiomatic expressions e.g. seldom follow (structural) rules but work perfectly well. Pemmican

	Pemmican  +  31225 Thu, 27 May 04 10:16 PM :s ... my cultural contrast?? In how far? Pemmican