Negating Lists in English

H: Is this correct?

J: is what correct?

H: She had no eyes, no nose, no mouth.

J: Ah, Lafcadio Hearn's retelling of the woman and the vendor and the traveler on the bridge.

H: Hearn?

J: Koizumi Yakumo. From Kwaidan. Spooky people with no face.

H: Uh, yes. Is it correct?

J: Yeah.

H: Why? Isn't there a better way to say it?

J: Depends on your purpose.

H: Well, you know my ultimate goal ...

J: To pass the college entrance exams with the highest score and get into the best university. 

H: So? Are you going to try to tell me again that college isn't important?

J: Cart before the horse, but we never get anywhere discussing that. Are you willing to try to understand the grammar?

H: Of course.

J: It's going to sound a little like math.

H: You always tell me English is math.

J: Language is a branch of math. English is a language. So's Japanese, but the complexity ...

H: No eyes, ...

J: Okay, okay. In most languages, when you string stuff together, unless you say otherwise the assumption is "and".

H: I don't understand.

J: If you mean "or", you usually say "or". But if you mean "and", maybe you don't really need to say it.

H: Hmm. So what would it mean if I said, "no eyes or no nose or no mouth"?

J: Let's start with a short list, okay? And extrapolate from there?

H: Ex strap O' late?

J: See if we can figure it out.

H: You always make things hard.

J: Short lists are easier.

H: Oh-kay.

J: Peas.

H: Yum.

J: No peas. 

H: No fair.

J: Good. Peas and carrots.

H: That's American.

J: True. Peas or carrots.

H: I'll take peas.

J: Of course you will. But you see that "or" gives you an alternative.

H: Could you take both?

J: Actually, in English, yes.

H: Hmm.

J: No peas or carrots.

H: Uhm, carrots or no peas?

J: That would want a comma to break connections -- no peas, or carrots. But it's a bit ambiguous.

H: I am not biguous.

J: True. I mean, without the common, the no negates or flips the whole expression upside-down.

H: Okay, that sounds like math.

J: Yep.

H: So, no peas or carrots would be no peas, flip the or to and, no carrots? No peas and no carrots?

J: Right.

H: And no peas and carrots means no mix, but it could have just peas by itself?

J: Or just carrots. No, what does "no peas, no carrots" mean?

H: Neither. Like "no peas and no carrots".

J: Very good.

H: Okay, I think I got it. "No eyes, no nose, no mouth. Nothing."

J: Ve-ry good.

H: Would it be the same as "no eyes, nose, or mouth"?

J: Because the comma can mean more than one thing, it gets a little tricky, but, usually, yes.

H: What about "no eyes, nose, and mouth".

J: Heh. In Kwaidan, Simplicity takes over and it means the same thing.

H: Oh, ...

J: Language is not ideal math.

H: I believe that.

J: But you would prefer to write it with "or".

H: Okay, I think I get it. What if ...

J: Uh, huh?

H: I were drawing a picture and had to choose to leave one out?

J: Be explicit.

H: "Draw a face without the eyes or without the nose, or without the mouth."

J: Something like that.