Why ‘No Problem’ Presents a Conversational Problem
In his newly rebooted series Language Files the impressively linguistically educated Tom Scott talks about phatic expressions - those brief, conversational responses used in everyday life. While these expressions are the equivalent of verbal handshakes, they always changing causing some phatic expressions to not translate properly through generational gaps.
Related Laughing Squid PostsAn Old Irish Script Based Upon Carved Stone Notches and Spaces That Presented a Big Unicode ProblemA Lovely Visual Narrative That Shows What It's Really Like to Read LipsNewHive, A Creation Platform Specifically Designed to Help Keep the Internet WeirdIt's now usual to reply to "thank you" with "no problem." But that's a bit contentious because for some, usually older, folks "no problem" is not phatic and it's impolite: it should be "you're welcome" instead, which, to many younger folks, also sounds impolite! We're going to have these generational differences as long as language continues to change. So why do we bother with phatic expressions at all?
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