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by kibwen 1038 days ago
In linguistics these are called "phatic expressions", and are far from unique to American English. Similar to idioms, phatic expressions don't have the literal meaning implied by their component words and instead serve a social purpose (in this case, serving to signify the beginning of a communication protocol). In British English the analogous phrase would be "you alright?"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eGnH0KAXhCw
2 comments
jacquesm 1038 days ago
Interesting: so this is one of those things where my ESL background is shining through. I'm sure if I introspect on Dutch I'll find equivalents that I might be using myself which when literally translated to English would upset an English or American counterpart in the same way. Never thought of this. And I didn't know the term Phatic Expression.

Thank you for posting this and the video link.

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smodo 1038 days ago
There is a perfect equivalent in ‘hoe is het?’ or ‘alles goed?’ Those are mostly used as a syn/ack-phrase so to speak.
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gattilorenz 1038 days ago
“Graag gedaan” (“you’re welcome”, “my pleasure”, but more lit. “I did it with pleasure”) can be dropped quite casually, right?
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jacquesm 1038 days ago
Yes, but it actually does have meaning, and it is appreciated for that meaning rather than ignored.

Conversely:Americans probably think I'm rude because I don't first ask them how they are but start the actual conversation without pre-amble.

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lotsofpulp 1038 days ago
I would find it normal if you started a conversation after a simple “hi” or “hello”, and I think many other Americans would agree.
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gattilorenz 1037 days ago
“How are you doing?” also has a meaning, and sometimes is used in “the deeper sense”, i.e. the literal one.

Graag gedaan is also something you say to be polite, not only when it really was your pleasure to do it, so it could qualify as a phatic expression - I don’t think anyone on the other side thinks “oh well, that person surely cares about me: it’s a pleasure doing something for me!”.

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dylan604 1038 days ago
I find it curious/interesting on how you don't notice your own versions of these from just being immersed in the language. It's not until noticing these in other languages/dialects that I really paid attention. UK English's "Watcha" and "innit" (if that's even how they spell them) are some of my favorites
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