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

Thu Oct 26 17:01:55 UTC 2017

I don't follow you.

The question to be answered is, "Don't you agree it's embarrassing?" Ans.:
"No, it *is* embarrassing."

JL

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 12:50 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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