Japanese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Japanese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I am not sure what the response to the following question would be.
今のオリンピックは勝ち負けを気にするあまり、スポーツマンシップという大切なものをなくしているのではないか。
I am thinking it might be
はい、なくしている。
but then again with the sentence
飲みませんか。
I thought I remember the response being
いいえ。
for I would like something to drink.
From The Structure of The Japanese Language, Susumu Kuno (1980, p. 274-278)
The words in parenthesis and the bolding are my additions.
What is at issue here is not the presence or absence of the syntactic negative but the presence or absence of the semantic negative in questions. In other words, the deciding factor here is whether the questioner is expecting a negative answer or not from the hearer.
The issue, then, is whether, given a negative question, there are any syntactic clues to distinguish a semantically neutral question from one that contains the questioner's expectation of a positive answer.
Q: 何も買いませんでしたか。(without expectation of positive answer)
A1: はい、何も買いませんでした。
A2: いいえ、本を買いました。Q: 何か買いませんでしたか。(with expectation of positive answer)
A1: はい、本を買いました
A2:いいえ、何も買いませんでしたWhen a question involves the ...no/n desu 'it is that ...' pattern, it appears to be a neutral question if the negative is in the clause preceding no/n, but a question with the expectation of a positive answer if the desu is negated.
Q: 行かなかったのですか。(without expectation of positive answer)
A1: はい、行かなかったのです。
A2: いいえ、行きましたよ。Q: 行ったのではありませんか。(with expectation of positive answer)
A1: はい、行きましたよ。
A2: いいえ、行かなかったのです。
Your question ends with ～のではないか。 It is a case of a のです pattern with the negation in the です instead of in the clause preceding の・ん.
