How are you today?

Mar 28, 2008 at 7:21 AM
2 comments

So I am curious to know what you all think about where this saying (how are you today?) would fit within the Politeness Principle. The reason I ask is that this is something that everyone says sometime to someone during their daily activities. But on many occasions this is used as a greeting and the speaker is not really asking a literal question. Does this violate any kind of maxim in your opinion?

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I think it would fit in the politeness principal - as far as our generation in this country is concerned. In other countries, France for example, it seems to be more expected that you give a certain amount of information, at least more than the: how are you? good, you?, exchange that is common here.

I agree that it fits in the politeness principal. Does it count that when we ask such "polite" questions, the answer sometimes violates the maxim of quantity since most people do not intend for the response to be detailed?

How are you today?

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