Indeed; for another example, classical Latin did not use words for “yes” and “no”. A question such as “Do you see it?” would have been answered with “I see it”/”I don’t see it”.
Alicorn’s note about Chinese probably explains the basis for the eventual “Do not want!” meme, which came from a reverse translation of a crude Chinese translation of Darth Vader saying “Noooooooooooooo!” Link
The Chinese translator probably looked up what “No” means. Translation dictionaries, in turn, recognize that “No” doesn’t have a direct translation, so they list several options, given the context. In the case that “no” is a refusal of something, the translation in Chinese should take the form “[I] do not want [that]”. (If they have to list only one option, they pick the most likely meaning, and that may have been it.)
Then, clumsily using this option, the Chinese translator picked something that translates back as “do not want”.
Chinese does something similar. “Do you see that?” would be answered affirmatively by saying the word for “See”, or negatively by saying “Don’t see”. In some contexts, the words for “correct” and “incorrect” can be used a bit like “yes” and “no”.
The common part is that in both Latin and Chinese the subject can be/is implicitly included in the verb. Using “I” explicitly, at least In Chinese, would emphasis something along the line “but you may not” (due to whatever). (This is at least what I’ve been told, standard disclaimer on insufficient knowledge applies).
Indeed; for another example, classical Latin did not use words for “yes” and “no”. A question such as “Do you see it?” would have been answered with “I see it”/”I don’t see it”.
Alicorn’s note about Chinese probably explains the basis for the eventual “Do not want!” meme, which came from a reverse translation of a crude Chinese translation of Darth Vader saying “Noooooooooooooo!” Link
The Chinese translator probably looked up what “No” means. Translation dictionaries, in turn, recognize that “No” doesn’t have a direct translation, so they list several options, given the context. In the case that “no” is a refusal of something, the translation in Chinese should take the form “[I] do not want [that]”. (If they have to list only one option, they pick the most likely meaning, and that may have been it.)
Then, clumsily using this option, the Chinese translator picked something that translates back as “do not want”.
Chinese does something similar. “Do you see that?” would be answered affirmatively by saying the word for “See”, or negatively by saying “Don’t see”. In some contexts, the words for “correct” and “incorrect” can be used a bit like “yes” and “no”.
The common part is that in both Latin and Chinese the subject can be/is implicitly included in the verb. Using “I” explicitly, at least In Chinese, would emphasis something along the line “but you may not” (due to whatever). (This is at least what I’ve been told, standard disclaimer on insufficient knowledge applies).