POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Another annoyance of colloquial English : Re: Another annoyance of colloquial English Server Time
29 Jul 2024 08:22:04 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Another annoyance of colloquial English  
From: Francois Labreque
Date: 1 Feb 2012 20:04:32
Message: <4f29e120@news.povray.org>

>    "Do you mind if I come in?"
>    "Yes, of course."
>
>    Uh... Yes, you mind, or yes, I can come in?
>
>    "Do you mind if I come in?"
>    "No, not at all."
>
>    Hmm, no. you don't mind, or no, I cannot come on?
>
>    It seems that the answer to any "do you mind" question can be either
> "yes" or "no", but the meaning cannot be deduced from the answer and
> instead it has to be inferred from the tone of voice or the speaker.
> You could just as well answer "banana" and it would carry as much
> meaning without the tone of voice.
>

It reminds me of a dialog box in one of the programs I use:

Do you want to cancel changes?

[OK]  [CANCEL]

It should really have been a Yes/No dialog box as OK cancels the 
changes, while CANCEL goes back to the edition screen, allowing you to 
make more changes...

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }


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