Not "X" is an interpretation.

• Isn’t “not X” interpretation, not fact? - abstract concept created in the brain by an observer of concrete facts, rather than concrete facts.
• Shouldn’t the question be, “What exactly do you mean by ‘not X’?” I think the question should be, “What exactly do you mean by ‘not X’?

Example

• Something’s not working with the program!”
  • What exactly do you mean by “stuck?”
  • You’re getting an error message when you compile.
  • Is the program you executed behaving differently than you expected?
    • What was the expectation and what was the actual behavior that occurred?
• Mr. A has no communication skills!”
  • What exactly do you mean by “lack of communication skills?”
  • Did Mr. A not understand what the speaker said?
  • The speaker didn’t understand what Mr. A told him?
  • What exactly are these “things we talked about”?
• No masks.”
  • This is pretty concrete and factual.
  • But I dare you to ask, “What exactly do you mean by ‘no’?” Let’s think about it.
  • Until last week, drugstores had plenty of masks, but now they don’t.”
  • So that mask no longer exists?
    • Not even at the factory?
    • It’s at the factory, but it hasn’t reached the store?
    • It’s arriving in the store, but promptly sold out?

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This page is auto-translated from /nishio/「Xでない」は解釈 using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.