yeah, no

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Fri Jul 20 16:12:45 UTC 2012


At 7/20/2012 12:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Ben's links show just how complex "Yeah, no" really is.  There's more than
>one kind.

And he's not even including the Japanese response to a question posed
in the negative.  Which I as a non-native don't understand too.

Joel


>JL
>
>On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 11:03 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: yeah, no
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list