yeah, no

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 20, 2012, at 9:28 AM, Charles C Doyle wrote:

> Isn't introductory "Yeah" sometimes semantically empty--just a filler like "Hmm"?  Or perhaps signifying merely '+ politness'?
>
> --Charlie

Maybe sometimes, but not obviously in Jon's example (which isn't unique), where a simple "No, you're right" would strike me as a bit odd.  I confess that as a non-native "Yeah, no" speaker, I'm not sure I have a handle on what it's doing.

LH
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 9:05 AM
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There it seems to mean, "Yes indeed, and no, I wouldn't think of
> contradicting you."
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 8:53 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>> Former NYPD detective on CNN today: "Yeah, no, you're right!"
>>
>> JL
>
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