table pragmatics

[trochee]

I've just bought a new dining room table and matching chairs. I feel so gentrified. It was a bit of an ordeal, because the total was really astonishingly high.

anyway, I'm only writing about it because of the interesting locution that the gentleman who took my credit card had:

Hello, Macy's furniture, this is Rogelio! How may I provide you outstanding service today?

I can't tell what pragmatics rule this violates, but it seems to be startlingly off somehow.

Perhaps it's some kind of double-ironic Griceian toe-pick, intended to encode the phrase fuck you, I don't even know you, strictly by the mechanism of superfluity.

Comments

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

Well I suppose he is "epidemizing" the Macy's brand!

[trochee.livejournal.com]

is "epidemizing" like "making into the epidemic"? ;)

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

It is giving proper shots of the brand name in order to create permanent addiction.

[fructivore.livejournal.com]

It's for similar reasons, I think, that Miss Manners reminds us that it's impolite to thank someone (as in a letter) for something they haven't done yet, or to say that it's a pleasure to meet someone for the first time, before you've actually had a reasonable chance to get to know them.

Has anyone ever done anything with etiquette and linguistics?

[trochee.livejournal.com]

that's an excellent point.

I think that may be the effect of it: something said frequently in sincerity becomes lexicalized/formalized until it becomes something-said-in-that-context no matter what. Like saying "thankyouverymuch" to bus drivers and rude 7-11 clerks, which I have a habit of doing all the time.

I saw a televised version of Brave New World that had all the People of the Future who would say hello by saying "helohowaryuwaimfaynthenkyuverrimutch", no matter who they were, what they came in to say, or whatever.

I wish I could remember whether this was in the book! But I'm too lazy to go look.

[isolt.livejournal.com]

Hee! to the Brave New World thing. I knew a girl once who decided to deliberately tell everyone who asked her exactly how she was really feeling. It tended to upset people, as they weren't really interested, just engaging in a formality.

I think the issue is, once an interaction has become that formalized, you can't break the rules in either direction -- not only can you not be too negative, you can't be too positive either, or it comes off rude. I suspect that's what's wrong with the greeting above. It's more perky than formality allows, and it comes off like sarcasm. There's probably a deeper analysis that I'm missing because I'm really tired.

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

I am kinda that girl. If you ask , don't be sorry you asked. Mean it !!!

[isolt.livejournal.com]

When in the company of friends, I religiously observe the formality and the immediately negate the "I'm fine" with the truth.

I make strangers uncomfortable by telling them I don't care how they spell my name.

[la-chispa.livejournal.com]

I don't know what it violates, but it is scripted/corporate speech, which seems to think it's fine to violate whatever rule that is. Southwestern Bell in Austin was great. My conversations with its customer disservice people opened with:

SWB: What's the number you're calling about?
me: 512.555.3345. It's completely dead.
SWB: Are you calling from that number?
me: ARGH!!!!

and closed with:

SWB: Thank you for choosing Southwestern Bell.
me: It was hardly a choice.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

wow. that's an amazing bit of doublespeak, combined with null-think.

I hate that Qwest does the same thing (well, the "thank you for choosing Qwest") in Seattle. In what way did I choose? It's a frickin monopoly!

[mythalethe.livejournal.com]

sounds like corporate doublespeak to me...