Yeah, No, No, Yes

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Leah, and I’m calling from Argyle, Texas.

Leah!

Hello, Leah!

Welcome to the show!

Hi, thank you.

What can we do for you?

Okay, well, one day my sister was getting in the car and she asked my mom, can I sit in the front seat? And my mom was like, no, no, no, no, no, absolutely yes. And I was wondering, what is, why did she go, no, no, no, yes? Why is she disagreeing with herself, right?

Yeah.

What do you think the answer is?

I think she just meant yes, and she wanted my sister to believe her.

Yeah.

Oh, that’s so interesting. You must be really observant, Leah, because a lot of people hear that, and it just passes over their heads, and they don’t notice that sometimes we do say yes and no in the same sentence, but there’s not really disagreement there. There’s not really a conflict between those two words.

So let’s run through this. So what was happening was you’re in the car with your mom and your sister, and your sister asked if she could sit in the front?

Yes.

And then your mom said?

She said, no, no, no, no, absolutely yes. No, no, no, no, no, absolutely yes.

Oh, it’s so perfect. So there’s this thing where we do where we are agreeing with something at the same time we’re disagreeing with something else. So the no is a way of saying I’m disagreeing with you that it might be a problem. I’m saying, no, it doesn’t matter to me whether or not you sit in the front, or no worries that you sit in the front, or no, I don’t care if you sit in the front. And then you’re saying, yes, you can sit in the front. Yes, it’s fine to sit in the front. So there’s the surface thing that you’re saying on the top, and there’s the underneath thing that you’re saying behind that. And so your yes and no work with both parts of that.

Okay.

And do you find yourself doing that too, Leah?

Yeah.

I do it myself, too.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, you know, Leah, I often hear people say, yeah, no.

Yeah, I actually did that this morning.

You did? What was it? What were you talking about?

We were actually talking about the podcast, and then I was like, are you going to face up? And I’m like, yeah, no.

Oh, there we go. And you did, and you’re doing great. Perfect. You sound like you have an interest in language and linguistics, huh?

Yeah.

And how old are you, Leah?

I’m nine.

And you’re in, let’s see, third grade, fourth grade?

Third grade, yeah.

Third grade. All right. Well, I got to say, you’re brave to call us. You did super well, and we’re really happy to take your call.

Thank you.

Call us again sometime, all right?

Okay.

Take care now.

Bye, Leah.

Bye-bye.

This is a show for everyone in the family, including kids of any age and adults of any age. So if you’re a kid of 9 or 92, give us a call, 877-929-9673, or talk to us in email, words@waywordradio.org.