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

[Laurence Horn]

Aha.  I missed the contrastive stress on *is* on first reading.  On second reading: No, I agree with Dan.

LH

> On Oct 26, 2017, at 11:45 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> 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
>> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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