yeah, no

[Jonathan Lighter]

Some of the Language Log exx. show that "yeah-no" can also mean "yeah."

The whole discussion is worth a look.

It reminds me of the first time I noticed people saying "so I was like,"
meaning "so I thought or said."

Very strange at the time (I was already a grownup), but soon afterwards
tediously "normal."

JL

On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 9:00 PM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: yeah, no
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's come up frequently on Language Log:
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005523.html
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005525.html
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005529.html
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=38
>
> And here is Ben Yagoda on the Chronicle's Lingua Franca blog:
>
> http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/06/14/yeah-no/
>
> --bgz
>
> On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 6:31 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Right, I'm frequently told about "yeah, no", and the non-equivalent "no,
> > yeah", when I talk (not infrequently) about negation.  I agree that "yes,
> > no" is far less likely (and would indicate changing of mind, which "yeah,
> > no" doesn't).
> >
> > LH
> >
> > On Jul 16, 2012, at 6:10 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > > Current TV commercial:
> > >
> > > LADY AT SEANCE: Thank you, Priceline Negotiator, wherever you are!
> > >
> > > SPIRIT MEDIUM: Yeah, no, he's over here.
> > >
> > > There's no reason on Wotan's green earth why Beowulf's grandma
> shouldn't
> > > have been saying the OE equivalent of this (presumably "gese, na") in
> > > similar situations, but I've only been noticing it for a few years.
> > >
> > > The "yeah" acknowledges the remark, and the "no" instantly denies its
> > > accuracy before the nay-sayer corrects it.
> > >
> > > I've never heard "*yes, no."
> > >
> > > Back in the 20th C., when we were all rude primitives, I would have
> > > said,
> > > "No, he's over here." Or "(Well)(Actually) he's over here." But
> possibly
> > > those responses are now either too cruelly direct or employ to many
> > > syllables.
> > >
>
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