The z-component dynamical spin correlation function S zz (q,w) of the s= 1 / 2 anisotropic XY chain is calculated exactly in the fermion representation. S zz consists of two parts: one (S m ) represents two fermion excitations and the other (S s ) describes scattering from thermally excited fermions. In the continuum limit, S s has the structure of the solitonic part of a classical sine-Gordon correlation function, but the soliton form factor is modified by quantum effects. S m has similarities with the spin-wave continuum form of S zz an isotropic spin chains. The continuum results are compared with those for a discrete chain.