Thanks for that helpful post, hibernicus. Exactly so — we all agree on the negative-polarity use of “yet,” but the positive one seems to be restricted, so far in this thread, to Wisconsin, (part of?) Canada, Mennonites in Ohio, and one guy in Seattle (did anyone investigate his family roots?).
(Someone mentioned Yiddish. In this semantic domain, the end-of-sentence word in Yiddish transferred to English as “already” — “Enough, already! All right, already!”).
“Are we there yet?” seems to lack the negative word and meaning, but it’s really implying “Aren’t we there yet?” — i.e., “Have we not yet arrived?” — i.e., “I expected us to be there already. Is the reality contrary to my expectation/hope?”
All this reminds me of a Justin Wilson joke, reprinted below:
Bodraux walked into a cafe looking for Tibadaux
Tibadaux was known to be the smartest man in town.
As Bodraux spotted Tibadaux he walked over and sat down.
Tibadaux asked, what can I help you with ?
Bodraux replied, tell me where a female womans yet is.
Tibadaux asked what did you say ?
Bodraux answered, where is a female womans yet.
At this Tibadaux rubbed his stubby beard, sipped his
coffee and replied, a woman aint got some yet.
Oh hell yea she do replied Bodraux.
Oh hell no she don’t replied Tibadaux I know everything
and I can tell you for certain a woman aint got no yet.
At this Bodraux said I can prove it.
He pulled a Times Picayune paper out of his back pocket
And said, right here on the front page of this paper
the headlines say THAT A WOMAN WAS FOUND SHOT TO DEATH AND THE BULLET WAS IN HER YET
“are we there yet?” And “have you done it yet” don’t seem to be using “yet”’in the sense of “still”
The use of “yet” to mean “remaining” or “still” is well established if somewhat archaic; it’s not a “mistake.” Lots of examples from Shakespeare leap to mind. Here’s just one:
Lafeu: There’s one grape yet …
Another:
Benedick: What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
I will say, though, that searching the concordance and seeing all the variable usage demonstrates that this is indeed a strange little word.
From the song Navigator, by The Pogues, about railway construction;
Their mark on this land is still seen and still laid
The way for a commerce where vast fortunes were made
The supply of an Empire where the sun never set
Which is now deep in darkness, but the railway’s there yet.
Exactly. The “still” meaning is unusual/regional, because it has positive polarity. The more common/ubiquitous meanings — including in “are we there yet?” — have negative polarity.
It’s just that the negativity is usually obvious, because there’s a clearly negative word elsewhere in the sentence — whereas in “are we there yet?” (and “I’ve yet to see a bigger fish than that…”), the negativity is a little more hidden.
I wonder if it is because there are other meanings of “still” and “yet” that don’t have to do with time and duration where the meaning is the same. “Are the kids at school yet?” to me is always asking if they arrived at school, not whether they remain at school but “My mother served her yet another piece of pie" and “My mother served her still another piece of pie" mean the same thing to me.
There are about 9 examples of using yet in that wikiHow link- and I could substitute “still” for almost all of them. The only two I wouldn’t are using “yet” at the end of a sentence to indicate something hasn’t happened and the example given of showing enthusiasm " “That was her best film yet!”
Good point — “still” has other meanings that coincide with some of “yet’s” other meanings, such as marking an instance of “third or more” with surprise or other emotion or judgment.