Consider:
A: Do you like ice cream?
B: No, I don't.
Usually in a grammar book when you answer someone's question with negation, you'll use a shortened answer like "I don't". I know you can answer with a fuller response like "No, I don't like ice cream" but why should it be, "No, I don't" rather than, "No, I do not"?
This has been puzzling me for years. I think both answers are acceptable to me. I just want to know if there are any syntactical rules behind this.
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