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

[Dan Goncharoff]

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