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

[Dan Goncharoff]

I read it differently.

The question was, " it's kind of embarrassing for the Democrats. Isn't it?"

The answer was, "No, it *is* embarrassing." I read that as "No, it's not
*kind of* embarrassing, it *is* embarrassing."


DanG

On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 7:43 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Oct 25, 2017, at 7:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Barron-Lopez was answering the question “Isn’t it?”  Since the
> > (apparently) correct answer was “It is,” she could have answered either
> > “Yes, it is” or “No, it is.”
> >
> > I don't see "No, it is" as a possibility.  In fact, it seems totally
> > impossible to me.
> >
> > JL
>
> Agreed; plus I’m not sure where the fail is in answering “Isn’t it?”
> negatively by responding “No, it isn’t”.  What’s more complicated is if the
> original question doesn’t have a contraction.  As an answer to “Did you not
> remember to take out the trash?” I can imagine either “No, I DID remember”
> or “No, I didn’t remember”.   But if the question had been “Didn’t you
> remember to take out the trash?” only the latter is possible (or, of course
> “Yes, I remembered”).
>
> LH
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 3:07 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Barron-Lopez was answering the question “Isn’t it?”  Since the
> >> (apparently) correct answer was “It is,” she could have answered either
> >> “Yes, it is” or “No, it is.”  English seems to fail when the correct
> answer
> >> to “Isn’t it?” is “It is not.”
> >>
> >>
> >> John Baker
> >>
> >>
> >> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf
> >> Of Jonathan Lighter
> >> Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2017 12:31 PM
> >> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >> Subject: Re: No = 'yes; truly'
> >>
> >> External Email - Think Before You Click
> >>
> >>
> >> John King, CNN: But, politically, it's kind of embarrassing for the
> >> Democrats. Isn't it?
> >>
> >> Laura Barron-Lopez, _Washington Examiner_ (b. ca.1990?): No, it *is*
> >> embarrassing. It's another thing that's added to the long list of why
> can't
> >> the Clinton campaign, you know, say what they're doing or be honest
> about
> >> something.
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 7:21 AM, Berson at att.net<mailto:Berson at att.net> <
> >> Berson at att.net<mailto:Berson at att.net>> wrote:
> >>
> >>> No, no, no, no, no ... yes.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Joel
> >>>
> >>> Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE Smartphone
> >>>
> >>> ------ Original message------
> >>> *From: *Jonathan Lighter
> >>> *Date: *Sun, Nov 6, 2016 3:02 PM
> >>> *To: *ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:*ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>;
> >>> *Subject:*Re: [ADS-L] No = 'yes; truly'
> >>>
> >>> Chuck Todd on _Meet the Press_: "They were huge for Obama, [but]
> >> they'vebeen stagnant this cycle."Tom Brokaw: "No, they have been."Brokaw
> >> went on to elaborate the stagnation.JLJLOn Wed, May 4, 2016 at 11:56 PM,
> >> Wilson Gray wrote:> On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 12:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter >
> >> wrote:>> > On Sun, May 1, 2016 at 9:03 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:> >> > > Is
> >> this a variant?> > >> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5GSq4Hea6E<
> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5GSq4Hea6E>> >>> So, it's *not* a
> >> variant. The Magic version is commonplace among the> colored. Yeah,
> naw.>>>
> >> --> -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<
> >> 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<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<
> >> 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
>

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