The reality of answering いいえ to a negative question

Question

tl;dr: when answering a negative question, can いいえ be used to affirm what the question states as a whole?

I came to Japan at the age of six, and I guess I pass as a normal native speaker of Japanese to most people (aside from some personal quirks like long response time).

However, there's one thing, one very basic thing that I have a hard time getting right without a conscious effort: answering negative questions.

Consider this negative question:

車、持ってないんですか？ You don't have a car?

The right way to answer is:

• いいえ、持ってます / いいえ。 Yes, I have one.
• はい、持ってません / はい。 No, I don't.

The problem is, I almost always mix up はい/いいえ and end up answering just like in English. i.e. Describing my situation rather than responding to what the asker has in mind. With a single word answer, with no clarifying comment, it could be a life-or-death mistake.

Over the years, despite the threat of death, I've developed a self-serving hypothesis that with most negative questions, the answer is predetermined and anticipated by context and it doesn't matter much if I screw up. This hypothesis seemed to work sometimes.

My question is, can I keep on believing my hypothesis? For example, if you were asked

もう料理はいらない？

1. Answering はい implies what the asker has in mind "She looks full" is true; your meal is over. (the correct answer in Japanese)
2. Answering いいえ implies you're not in the mood for another dish, just like the asker thought; your meal is over. (according to my hypothesis)

Or, is there no pathway for the kind of logic in #2 in the Japanese way of thinking?

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Edit 1: to clarify the scope of this question, a few bullet points if I may...

• Assume the question is a simple, plain negative question
  • that is, no double negatives (...じゃないんじゃない?), confirmation in the form of a question (...じゃないですよね?), etc.
• answered with a single word (はい/いいえ/うん/ううん)
• taking place between true, pure-bred native Japanese speakers

Edit 2: thanks to the feedbacks, I've come up with a definition of the problem in a more formal fashion. Here goes..

Conversations take place amid tensions (or harmony) between several norms:

• Grammatical norm - the correct usage defined by grammar books
• Social norm - accepted, default usage in practice
• Contextual norm - accepted usage defined by context

The question is, when answering a negative question with a single word, can contextual norm disagree with the grammatical one? i.e. can an utterance of "いいえ" mean "はい" as defined in grammatical speak? As of this writing, one answer says yes, two others say no.

Answer 1

My understanding is that, in Japanese, you answer the question, whereas in English, you ignore the question and just affirm or negate the predicate part. In other words, Japanese is more logical than English, (whereas English may be more pragmatic than Japanese).

Japanese

車を持っていますか
'Is it the case that you have a car?'
--はい
　'It is the case that I have a car.' = 'I have a car.'
--いいえ
　'It is not the case that I have a car.' = 'I do not have a car.'

車を持っていませんか
'Is it the case that you do not have a car?'
--はい
　'It is the case that I do not have a car.' = 'I do not have a car.'
--いいえ
　'It is not the case that I do not have a car.' = 'I have a car.'

English

Do you have a car?
[Ignore the question. Just affirm or negate the predicate '(you) have a car'.]
--Yes. I have a car.
--No. I do not have a car.

Don't you have a car?
[Ignore the question. Just affirm or negate the predicate '(you) have a car'.]
--Yes. I have a car.
--No. I do not have a car.

Answer 2

Since this question was asked, I've gone around and asked about a half dozen Japanese people the following question:

If you ask someone 「もう食事はいらない？」 and they answer 「いいえ」, do you think they want more or not?

The result: Turns out it's just as vague as English with as much individual response. Most people said you would have to know more about the context what else was said, and that it would be a little unusual to just say 「いいえ」 without anything else (which I take to mean that a follow up clarification is needed and expected).

Some said it would depend heavily on the way it was said, because your tone alone could convey the necessary information. Saying 「いいえ」 in a flat tone meant "I don't want more food", but if said in a sort of happy upbeat tone, it meant "I do want more".

One woman actually said that if she wanted to convey she did not want any more food, she would say 「はい、いいえ」 as in, "yes, as you expect, my answer is no, I don't want more food".

I know others here would like to declare there is a rule that is followed, or should be followed, but I believe this kind of ambiguity of response to negative questions thing is not particular to Japanese, or English, but is just a function of human communication.

In other words, I think your stated premise that context will determine whether はい or いいえ is correct. It would be unnatural to just tersely say はい or いいえ and leave it at that anyway, so you're naturally bound to follow up with the clarification needed to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Answer 3

This was a big problem for me as well (in the reverse direction, that is)!

In this kind of yes/no questions, the asker forms a hypothesis and then asks whether this is true. If it's true, you say yes, else no.

車持ってないの？ ->
     「あなたは車を持っていない」は正しい？ ->
          正しくない ->
              いいえ、もっています


もう料理はいらない？ -> 
      「あなたはもう料理はいらない」は正しい？ -> 
          正しくない -> 
             いいえ、もっと食べたいです


今日天気悪くない？ -> 
     「今日は天気が悪い」は正しい？ -> 
          正しい -> 
             うん、悪いねぇ

So at least in my book, if you answer 「いいえ」 to 「もう料理はいらない？」 then it always means you want more.

Answer 4

There might not be a clear answer to this question. In order to avoid the problem, you could always repeat the verb used in the question.

For example: 車、持ってないんですか？ In the case that I do have a car: ありますよ In the case I don't: ありませんね