Language change

[David Gohre]

It was told :)

>  A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day.
> >
> > "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. In some
> > languages though, such as Russian, a double negative is still
> > considered a negative.  However, there is no language wherein a double
> > positive can form a negative."
> >
> > A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah. Right."


But this "Yeah, right," is said with a falling intonation, rather than a
rising intonation, wouldn't you all agree?  As such, wouldn't the
 consideration of intonation imply either a triple or a single negation?
Thus, it'd be natural to consider this "Yeah, right," as a standard
utilization of English, rather than an abberation?

Dave (not an intonation expert)