Replying to a negative question

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Dec 24, 2007 9:32 AM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> Cf. the often-discussed paradox of how a sworn witness in a courtroom is to answer,
> "yes" or "no," a question posed in the lawyerly formula "Is it not true that . . . ?"

Touched on here:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004171.html
(Roger Shuy, "More prosecutorial trick questions")


--Ben Zimmer

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