[Ads-l] No = 'yes; truly'

[Jonathan Lighter]

CHICAGO WOMAN, age ca 50:  "So will Bob be at the dinner?"

BOULDER WOMAN, age 69: "No, he'll be there."

JL

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 9:41 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Nada Bakos, former CIA analyst, on CNN:
>
> "Right. Exactly. [Briefly discusses Trump and Putin.] So no, I totally
> agree."
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Nov 8, 2017 at 9:45 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Literally no.
>>
>> I see this as a defensive. Everybody's a skeptic, so many speakers
>> interpret any response short of aggressive head-nodding as disbelief. The
>> result, in the face of presumed or expected disbelief, is an affirming
>> "no", meaning "no, I am serious, I mean this".
>>
>> I recognize this produces many instances of speakers saying "no" to
>> speakers that are not contradictory. Nor do I like it. But I think I
>> understand it.
>>
>> On Nov 8, 2017 9:28 AM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > POPPY HARLOW, CNN:  I assume that you're happy to see a little bit of
>> toned
>> > down rhetoric.
>> >
>> > JOHN KIRBY (former rear admiral, USN): I am, Poppy. No. No. I was. You
>> > know, I think that speech was adequate to the task.
>> >
>> > Anybody seriously think he was contrasting "is" and "was"?
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > On Sat, Oct 28, 2017 at 5:23 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > > > Am still confident that this weirdness is a reduction of "yeah, no."
>> > > Which
>> > > > means, essentially, "yeah" in prefacing a reply to a previous
>> speaker.
>> > >
>> > > Yayuh, naw. I concur
>> > >
>> > > On Sat, Oct 28, 2017 at 8:36 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
>> > wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> > > wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > Keep chewing:
>> > > >
>> > > > VICTOR BLACKWELL: These committees are led by Republicans in both
>> the
>> > > House
>> > > > and in the Senate. But Rene' was gonna come in with something.
>> > > >
>> > > > RENE' MARSH: No, what I was gonna say is, besides all of this, I
>> mean,
>> > > you
>> > > > mentioned, y' know, the White House's strategy of coming after
>> Hillary
>> > > > Clinton as... in the lead-up to all we learned about yesterday.
>> > > >
>> > > > CNN, 8:11 am EST.
>> > > >
>> > > > Am still confident that this weirdness is a reduction of "yeah, no."
>> > > Which
>> > > > means, essentially, "yeah" in prefacing a reply to a previous
>> speaker.
>> > > >
>> > > > JL
>> > > >
>> > > > On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 9:23 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > > >
>> > > > > <Yes--no, ...>, maybe <So, ...>. (WB latest stray conspiracy
>> > theories):
>> > > > > 1  Among the social media emerge solutions to the folkish need
>> for an
>> > > > > <<at-times-pseudo-contrastive-speaker-switching-sentence-
>> > > > > initial-particle>>.
>> > > > > 2  Cf. NHG <nun ja!> 'that's true enough, granted'. Probably
>> related
>> > to
>> > > > > Swedish [NAH-yah!] (Oh, come on, get real!).
>> > > > > 3  Cf. Hittite <nu> 'satzeinleitende Partikel' (Pok.770 s.v.
>> *nu(:)
>> > > > 'now').
>> > > > > (Can this be mere coincidence?)
>> > > > > 4  "I like coffee, I like tea, I like the girls and the girls like
>> > me:
>> > > > Yes,
>> > > > > no, maybe so..." (Harvey Weinstein trips up.)
>> > > > >
>> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > > > 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
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > -Wilson
>> > > -----
>> > > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>> to
>> > > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> > > -Mark Twain
>> > >
>> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > 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
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>



-- 
"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