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Pretend I have the following conversation with somebody, either through internet text messaging or a verbal in person communication. The brief conversation is below.

I ask:

Would you like me to collect the television or send it back to the shop?

Their reply:

Yes.

In this context, what does their response mean? I find it annoyingly ambiguous, as they could be referring to the former or latter part of the sentence.

securityauditor
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    It's completely ambiguous, all you can do is ask them again (without giving them the A or B option). – KillingTime Dec 16 '22 at 15:17
  • @KillingTime Everybody I know seems to speak like this, in an informal sense what would they mean? – securityauditor Dec 16 '22 at 15:20
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    The two most likely meanings are "I am being annoying on purpose because I find it amusing" or "I didn't hear you properly." – Hellion Dec 16 '22 at 15:40
  • Either way, they want to be rid of the thing. – Tinfoil Hat Dec 16 '22 at 16:00
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    In principle "Yes" isn't ambiguous - it simply means they do want you to *collect the television OR send it back to the shop* (the implication being they don't care which side of that *OR* you choose to carry out, so long as you do one of the suggested actions). – FumbleFingers Dec 16 '22 at 16:16
  • I have no idea what it means to collect a television. – Jim Dec 16 '22 at 16:36
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    Answering a multiple-choice question with "Yes" is the true duplicate, securityauditor. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 16 '22 at 16:39
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    In a real-life context, the question would not be intended and would not be understood as a yes-or-no question (even though, considered in the abstract, it could be, as pointed out by FumbleFingers), but the OP already knows that, and nothing is to be gained by elaborating on the matter. It seems that the question is principally an expression of the OP's annoyance with somebody, rather than a genuine request for an explanation of something. – jsw29 Dec 16 '22 at 16:40
  • The question should have been closed as a duplicate of the one linked by Mr. Ashworth; it is not a duplicate of the one that is listed in the 'official' reason for closing. – jsw29 Dec 16 '22 at 16:43

1 Answers1

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The brief conversation is below.

I ask:

Would you like me to collect the television or send it back to the shop?

Their reply:

Yes.

By the questions you have created a difficulty. What did you expect? "'Yes", and 'Yes'"or some combination of Yes and No?

Additionally, I am not sure who is the subject of "will send it back to the shop."

It can read it as "Would you like me to collect the television or are you going to send it back to the shop?"

or

"Would you like me to collect the television or would you like me to send it back to the shop?"

In short, the fault is with the questioner.

Greybeard
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